After protracted re-negotiations, it
was agreed to reduce the total number
of aircraft to 10 Mirage 2000Ps and two
2000DPs, plus the Falcon 20, while a
congressional investigation into the
purchase was started. Signi cantly, a
follow-up agreement for electronic
countermeasures equipment for the
aircraft, the ight simulator, the weapons,
and the access to embedded software was
also canceled.Escuadrón 412
After all the problems, the rst four
Mirages were unloaded at Puerto General
San Martín in Pisco, on November 23,- The aircraft had arrived three days
earlier aboard the cargo ship Francoise
Billón. The jets were immediately taken
by road to Capitán Renán Elías Olivera Air
Base, which had become the headquarters
of Grupo Aéreo No 9, equipped with
Canberra bombers. French engineers
assembled the Mirages with the support
of technicians from FAP’s Servicio de
Mantenimiento (SEMAN).
On December 20, the aircraft were
ferried to La Joya (now Coronel
Maldonado Begazo Air Base),
headquarters of Grupo Aéreo No 4. Here,
Escuadrón de Caza 412 ‘Halcones’ was
established, under the command of Maj
Conde Garay.
The air base is situated in the middle of
the desert in the Arequipa region, some
621 miles (1,000km) to the south-east of
Lima and a 45-minute drive by car from
the Paci c coast. From there, the aircraftmanufactured, and Argenteuil, near Paris,
which was responsible for the fuselages,
before the aircraft were assembled and
tested at Mérignac, west of Bordeaux.
Meanwhile, the FAP began selecting
pilots who would convert to the new
ghter under a training program run in
France. In May 1985, Maj Felipe Conde
Garay and Capts Donovan Bartolini
Martínez, Ricardo Vílchez Raa and Guido
Zavalaga Ortigosa arrived at Mont-de-
Marsan, south-western France, where
they began a six-month training course.
Meanwhile, Alan García Pérez won
the presidential elections in Peru in- When he took o ce, he declared
a drastic reduction in the domestic
defense budget; among the cuts, García
decided to cancel the Mirage 2000 deal.
However, Dassault had already o cially
delivered two aircraft (a single-seat
Mirage 2000P and a two-seat Mirage
2000DP) during the Paris Air Salon at Le
Bourget on June 28. Furthermore, crew
training was progressing, and it was
declared impossible to completely cancel
the contract.
On October 8, 1985, the rst solo ights
with FAP pilots took place, involving
Conde Garay, Vilchez Raa and Zavalaga
Ortigosa. Bartolini Martínez followed the
next day, but in the days that followed,
all were ordered to return to Lima.
Meanwhile, the two Mirages already
delivered were embargoed pending
further negotiations on the future
of the deal.
This iamge: A pair
of Mirages patrols
near La Joya,
the home base
of Escuadrón de
Caza 412. In the
background is the
city of Arequipa
and the towering
mountains of
Chachani and El
Misti. Katsuhiko
Tokunaga/DACT
Right: Today, the
Peruvian Mirages
wear rather
bland overall
gray colors, a far
cry from their
original brown
camoufl age.
Katsuhiko
Tokunaga/DACThttp://www.combataircraft.net // August 2019 43
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