Défilé 2021, Paris

Every year, on 14 July, the annual Bastille Parade takes place at the ‘Avenue des Champs-Élysées’ in the centre of Paris. Soldiers march and tanks drive in tight formations in the streets of Paris, while overhead can be seen formations of aircraft and helicopters, led by the ‘Patrouille de France’ showing the French colors Blue, White and Red.

In the weeks before the 14th, the preparation flights started at Base Aerienne (BA) Orleans with the various section leads. Later the final preparations were performed overhead the city of Paris, for fine tuning.

On 14 July, aircraft and helicopters took off from various bases near Paris and from their homebases France. The Marine Nationale aircraft flew from their homebases

Base Aerienne Navale (BAN) Landivisi Landivisiau (with Rafales) and BAN Lann-Bihoue (with Atlantic, E-2 Hawkeye, Falcon 50M). The larger Armee de l’Air aircraft also flew from their homebases ( E- 3F from temporary airport Châteauroux, due to reconstructions at BA Avord; A400M from BA Orleans; A330 MRTT from BA Istres). The Rafale fighters from BA St-Dizier also flew from their homebase. Smaller aircraft like the AlphaJets (the Patrouille de France) and the PC- 21 flew from BA Villacoublay. Armee de l’Air and Marine helicopters flew from BA Villacoublay and Armee de Terre helicopters flew in from the military academy terrain of St-Cyr-l’Ecole, west of Paris.

BA Evreux

But all the other French fighters used BA Evreux (some 90 kilometers from Paris) as their take-off base. This year Rafales from BA Mont-de-Marsan, Mirages 2000D from BA Nancy, Mirages 2000C from BA Luxeuil and BA Orange took off from BA Evreux. In the early morning, some 20+ fighters started their engines for the takeoff. Special guests this year were the DGA delegation and the new Beech 350 surveillance aircraft while local based CASA CN-235s were the first to take off from BA Evreux.

DGA

La Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA, Directorate General of Armaments) is the French Government Defence procurement and technology agency responsible for project management, development and purchase of weapon systems for the French Armed Forces. It has a section dedicated to military flying assets that was formerly known as CEV (Centre d’Essais en Vol). After the closure of the Brétigny AB, the DGA moved to BA Cazaux and BA Istres. DGA uses a set of AlphaJets, Mirage 2000 C/D/N, PC7, Fennec, Dauphin and Puma’s. For the 2021 Defile, the DGA sent two Mirage 2000s and 3 AlphaJets to BA Evreux. One Mirage 2000 and two AlphaJets took off, while one Mirage 2000 and one AlphaJet remained as ground-spares.

St-Cyr-l’Ecole

The helicopters of the Armée de Terre ( Aviation Légère de l’Armée de Terre, ALAT) normally fly their Defile from the former airbase of Creil, north of Paris. But in 2021, the helicopters were based at the military academy terrain of St-Cyr-l’Ecole, west of Paris. After the Defile, the ALAT helicopters were refueled at the academy, with the nearby aerodrome St-Cyr-l’Ecole as a backup location. Several ALAT helicopters flew via the aerodrome to the academy terrain and returned to their homebase afterwards.