NBMR 2 NATO Maritime Patrol Aircraft
(NATO Basic Military Requirement)

The Atlantic 1 originated in a 1957 NATO requirement (NBMR-2) for a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircaft. The winner was the Breguet Br.1150. The work of the Multilateral Ad Hoc Group [AHG] on the financing of the NATO Maritime Patrol Aircraft [AC/152 1959-1960] followed the the AC/126 Group of Experts on Maritime Patrol Aircraft. The AC/126 Group of Experts had been created in 1957 to define the operational specifications of the patrol aircraft starting from the needs formulated by the quantitative analysts, to establish its features and needs for the countries, and to examine the possibilities of manufacture and supply Europe.

After examination of the proposals presented by the aeronautics firms, the experts chose the French plane "Bréguet 1150". They submitted a report at the Committee of Armaments (AC/74-D/316), which approved the choice of Bréguet 1150 with its meeting of 30 January 1959. To launch the manufacturing phase, the Committee created on the same day a special group composed of experts of the interested countries for the realization of the project (France, Germany, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Belgium, a little later), which was in charge "to examine the possibilities and the methods of multilateral financing of the stage research and development of the NATO maritime patrol aircraft, including the construction of two prototypes" (AC/74-R/70, not I).

The group met under the presidency of the section head aeronautics of the international Secretariat. It established the text of one of cooperation agreement between four European countries (France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium) who made their financial contribution with the construction of prototypes (AC/152-D/1 and revisions). The agreement envisaged apportionment of costs between the countries and the methods of execution of the project. On the governmental level, a management Committee was charged to direct and supervise the execution of the program; in the industrial sphere, the establishment of the plans and manufacture were entrusted to a consortium of industrial companies directed by the Workshops of aviation Louis Bréguet. The agreement was submitted to the Committee Armaments, accompanied by a draft Resolution of the Council, in a report AC/74-D/382 (amended by document AC/74-D/389). The Committee approved it November 26, 1959 and dissolved the special group (AC/74-R/79, note II). The Council adopted it in its turn on December 4, 1959 (CM (59) 98 and CR (59) 41, point II).

The meetings of the special group were semi-official until that of September 15, 1959. At this time, it received for its documents the designation AC/152. Eight documents were diffused under this designation: AC/152-D/1 with 6 ù (September 1959-January 1960) AC/152-R/1 and 2. They were partially declassified by DN/75 and DNN (88) 16; they remain nevertheless classified "confidential" or "restricted diffusion".

On 14th December 1956, the members of the NATO Council stipulated that, as a successor to the American aircraft Lockheed P 2V-7 Neptune, they needed a long-range maritime reconnaissance and antisubmarine warplane. In 1958, all 15 NATO countries approved a design for a common maritime patrol aircraft to be manufactured by a multinational consortium. However, the US Navy adopted the Orion instead and the British and Belgians withdrew from the program also. On 30th January 1959, the NATO Armaments Committee unanimously selected, out of the 21 projects presented, the Breguet Br 1150 Atlantic program.

The first prototype was assembled in Toulouse and the tests began at the end of 1961. The plan of production adopted in 1962, series production was started. Italy united with the project in 1968. This patrol aircraft is in service. Documents of group AC/126 having been accepted for the setting in public reading, it would seem logical to make some in the same way for the group AC/152, which closes into 1959 the preliminary works with the manufacture of the plane started in 1957.