38 African Pilot April 2015
DEVELOPMENT
The Mirage 2000 had a rather complex beginning. In 1965, Britain and France
joined forces to develop a new ‘swing-wing’ aircraft. Only two years later,
France pulled out of the failed collaboration. Britain continued developing the
aircraft, working instead with Italy and Germany. The resulting aircraft was
the Panavia Tornado. Meanwhile, France used the experience it had gained
through the collaboration to develop a number of new concepts. One of these
projects, the ‘Avion de Combat Futur’
(ACF - Future Combat Aircraft)
seemed to be the most promising,
but was cancelled by the French
Government in 1975. Dassault knew
that the ACF would have limited
export potential, so when the ACF
was cancelled, it already had another
concept available for the Armee de
l’Air (French Air Force). The new
aircraft designated ‘Mirage 2000,’ was considerably more affordable and was
immediately accepted by the French government. In contrast with the ACF, the
Mirage 2000 would also be able to compete with General Dynamics’ highly
successful F-16 in the global fi ghter market.
The Mirage 2000 prototype completed its maiden fl ight on 10 March 1978,
with the fi rst production example produced in November 1982. The aircraft
entered service with the Armee de l’Air two years later. At fi rst glance, it
seemed surprising that Dassault would opt for a delta wing design, which
seemed more old-fashioned than its Mirage F1’s conventional wing
confi guration. However, Dassault’s engineers were able to overcome the
delta wing’s inherent disadvantages by moving the centre of lift forwards,
whilst incorporating a measure of aerodynamic instability. These attributes,
aided by an advanced automated fl ight control system, provided excellent
manoeuvrability and handling, whilst retaining the traditional advantages of a
delta wing confi guration, such as good high speed fl ight characteristics.
The fi rst variant to leave the production line was the Mirage 2000C
(‘Chasseur’ - Fighter), followed shortly thereafter by the two-seater ‘B’
training variant. Other than an additional seat, the only difference between
the ‘C’ and ‘B’ variants was the lack of an internal cannon in the ‘B’. Although
export variants had a variety of designations, based on which country had
placed the order, they were generally referred to as ‘Mirage 2000Es’.Egypt was the fi rst Mirage 2000 customer with India and Peru placing orders
shortly afterward. Later in the
1980s, the United Arab Emirates
and Greece also placed orders. In
1988, the fi rst of 75 Mirage 2000Ns
entered service. In addition to the
capability of carrying a nuclear
missile, the ‘N’ had strengthened
wings for low altitude operations and
could carry a variety of weapons for
conventional warfare. Although the
Armee de l’Air initially reserved the use of its 2000Ns for nuclear warfare,
it later employed the aircraft in tactical reconnaissance roles. In 1995, the
fi rst of 86 Mirage 2000Ds entered service with the Armee de l’Air. The ‘D’
was essentially an ‘N’ which had been modifi ed to serve as an advanced
all-weather strike aircraft.Meanwhile, Dassault and Thompson-CSF (now known as Thales Group)
had begun work on a more modern variant of the Mirage 2000 B/C as a
private venture. The new variant completed its maiden fl ight in 1990 and was
designated ‘Mirage 2000-5’. It had signifi cantly more modern avionics and
improved combat capability. The Armee de l’Air did not place any orders, but
upgraded some of its Mirage 2000s to 2000-5 standards. However, Taiwan
and Qatar placed orders for the new variant in 1992 and 1994 respectively.
Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil later placed orders for an even
more advanced Mirage 2000-5 Mk.2 variant (designated Mirage 2000-9),
although Brazil cancelled its order and opted to purchase refurbished aircraft“Two Mirage 2000 squadrons
fl ew more than 500 sorties,
dropping more than 50 tonnes
of laser guided and
general purpose bombson enemy targets.”
Armee de l’Air Mirage 2000 - Sgt Ralph Merry / RAF