T
HE ELEGANT LINES of the
Dassault Mirage 2000 rst
came onto Peru’s radar
following the brief Paquisha
con ict with Ecuador in 1981.
The Fuerza Aérea del Perú
(Peruvian Air Force, FAP) saw a clear
need to upgrade its combat aircraft,
wishing to reduce its reliance on A-37s,
as well as aging Su-22s and Mirage 5s.
With the approval of Peruvian President
Fernando Belaunde Terry, the Consejo
de Defensa Nacional (National Defense
Council) began a study of options that
were on the market.
The rather secretive FAP thus launched
an international competition in order to
acquire a multi-role ghter. O ers were
received relating to a variety of types, led
by the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting
Falcon, the Israel Aircraft Industries K r
C7, the MiG-23, and the Mirage 2000.The F-16 and Mirage 2000 were down-
selected as the only two candidates as
the speci cation demanded a ghter with
y-by-wire controls. The ease of transition
for Mirage 5P pilots and maintainers made
the ‘Deux Mille’ the obvious choice and it
was declared the winner.
In December 1982, Peru signed the
Jupiter I and II contracts, followed in June
1985 by Jupiter III, worth a combined
total of $650 million and covering 26
brand new Mirage 2000s (24 single-
seaters and a pair of two-seaters), plus a
Dassault Falcon 20F for VIP transport, a
ight simulator and access to the Mirage’s
onboard computer software in order to
change con gurations to permit the use
of di erent weapons.Building Peruvian Mirages
Construction of Peru’s aircraft began
at Martignas, where the wings wereLatin American air arms have traditionally been keen operators of French aircraft. While
Peru isn’t the fi rst nation you might think of when it comes to the Mirage 2000, it has
operated the type for more than 30 years and is expected to do so for many years to come.REPORT Santiago Rivas and Amaru Tincopa
http://www.combataircraft.net // August 2019 41
40-45 Peru Mirage C.indd 41 20/06/2019 22:40