Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA)
Flight Test Centre
Istres-Le Tubé (BA 125)
April 2012

DGA Essais en Vol
The Direction Générale de l'Armement (General Directorate for Armament - DGA), is a French Government Defence agency responsible for the procurement, development and purchase of weapon systems for the French Military and was previously known as the Centre d'Essais en Vol (CEV). The French test pilot school EPNER (École du Personnel Navigant d'Essais et de Réception) is laso based at Istres-Le Tubé.

Aviation Photography Istres Mirage 2000
Dassault Mirage 2000N (334)
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Left to right: Mirage 2000N (334) and Rafale M (27) on loan from French Navy. It was reported that the Qatari Air Force were evaluating the Rafale during April at Istres as a potential replacement for their Mirage 2000s.
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Left to right: Embraer Xingu (106 'MN'), Dassault Falcon (Mystere) 20GF (342 'CU') and Casa 212s (377 F-ZVMO 'MO' and 378 F-ZVMP 'MP').
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Left to right: Alpha Jet E (E60), Jodel D.140R (520) delivered in 1967 and Pilatus PC-7 (579 F-ZJAI 'AI').

Aviation Photography Istres Mirage 2000
Aérospatiale SA 330B Puma (1184 F-ZAGA),
"today's mission: evaluating an optical sensor on the ground based on Radar detecting on ground audio and visual warnings..."
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Left to right: SA 330B Pumas (1184 F-ZAGA, not noted, 1024 F-ZLAX and 1025 F-ZLAU).
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Left to right: Eurocopter AS-550U-2 Fennecs (2803 F-ZLAG and 2851 F-ZLAI) with the new DVA motif and old Centre d'Essais en Vol titles.

Relics at the DGA and EC 02.004
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Left to right: Dassault Mirage III (234) outside the EPNER (École du Personnel Navigant d'Essais et de Réception) test pilot school offices.
Dassault Mirage 2000D prototype (D02) inside the DGA hangar but soon to be put on display at the main entrance.
SEPECAT Jaguar A (A133 '7-NB') outside the EC02.004 main building/hangar.