Posted on 07/21/2016 12:40:27 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Despite having about 100 Dassault Rafale B/Cs in the Air Force inventory, France sees itself forced to keep its older Mirage 2000D operational to keep the ground attack capabilities of the Armée de l’Air at proper levels. It even wants the Deltas to drop below altitudes they were not meant to do when designed – learning from recent missions in the skies of Southwest Asia.
Dassault Aviation received the order – by French defence procurement agency DGA – to renovate 55 Mirage 2000Ds. The modification include weapon system updates, the gun pod and Mica missiles of the aircraft version of the Mirage 2000 that is especially adapted for ground attack.
The Mirage 2000D entered service in 1993 and is the “less terrifying” sister of the Mirage 2000N designed for nuclear strike. In fact, the aircraft are basically the same with the Delta used for long-range strikes with conventional Apache, Scalp and Mica missiles. The first flight of the 2000D was in 1991, roughly 5 years after the 2000N. Lacking an on-board gun, has proven to be a miss during recent combat operations in Afghanistan, Libya (Operations Harmattan / Unified Protector) and Central Africa / Mali (Serval, now Barkhane) and combating the so-called Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria (ISIS / Daesh(.
Mirage 2000D operations
During the operations of the last few years the Mirage 2000Ds often flew with just a pair of 500 lbs GBU-12 laser-guided or GBU-49 gps-/laser-guided bombs and two external fuel tanks. Adding the gun pod means the French Air Force wants to add a more effective close-air support to the Mirage 2000D – something that the aircraft was not designed to do but may work well in low-threat environments. The new modifications are believed to have been mostly “inspired” by the recent deployments against ISIS / Daesh.
Take-off for a French Mirage 2000D deployed to fight ISIS / Daech. Notice the recon pod and missiles underneath (Image © Ministère de la Défense)
The newest French multi-role fighters Dassault Rafale B (two-seat) and C (single-seat) initially were introduced with air-to-air capabilities (F1) only. The latest Dassault Rafale B/C have been delivered in F3 standard (fully multi-role, including nuclear strike) but reportedly not all Rafale F1s have been fully upgraded yet to F3.
Mirage 2000D bases
French Air Force Mirage 2000Ds fly from BA133 Nancy/Ochey (France), BA188 Djibouti/Ambouli (East Africa) plus a pair normally deployed to Niamey/Diori Hamani in Niger in support of Operation Barkhane.
It sounds like the French need to make an order for A-10 Warthogs.
Sounds like the USAF needs to retain ours.
This is just so stupid.
This is an obsolete airframe, which should be retired. In a desperate attempt to preserve the system, the military is assigning it the duty that nobody wants.
They do no do this because it is particularly well suited to the role. In fact, it is pretty much exactly not suited to the role. The entire airframe is about high/fast/light. The mission is low/slow/tough. There is no way to insert Tab A into Slot B.
The mission will probably be a success, because bad ground attack aircraft are a heckuva a lot better than no ground attack aircraft. But the mission could be done better and cheaper by just about any aircraft you could imagine.
Except the F-35, of course. The F-35 will be worse at the mission and cost a lot, lot more.
Where is southwest Asia? Who are the SW Asians?
The Mirage-2000D is/was a stopgap. It is the conventional strike variant of the 2000N, which was meant for the nuclear strike role and was hastily designed to cover the delay in the Rafale.
It has one significant advantage over the Rafale: lower operating costs and commonality with the rest of the Mirage-2000 fleet. So you might as well upgrade it.
You don’t need modern airframes to fight ISIS or 3rd world nations. Even some P-51 would do well to strafe The head choppers. Its not like France is going to fight Russia or China.
“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps”
Must be another name for Israel and Israelis!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.