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"Two fighter aircraft of IAF were involved in an accident near Gwalior this morning. The aircraft were on routine operational flying training mission," the Indian Air Force (IAF) wrote in a statement on Twitter. "One of the three pilots involved sustained fatal injuries." The crash on Saturday morning involved a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 carrying two pilots and a French-made Mirage 2000 with one pilot. The planes crashed in an open field near no civilians. Villagers heard a blast-like sound and found parts of an aircraft in the nearby field. While local outlets initially reported no known fatalities, the IAF reported...

On February 1, two experienced Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots died when their newly upgraded Mirage 2000-I fighter crashed while taking-off in Bengaluru. A Court of Inquiry (CoI) investigating the accident is now confronting the worrying possibility of a glitch in the Mirage 2000’s flight computer that kicks in without warning, causing the aircraft to behave unpredictably. IAF flight records examined by the CoI have revealed at least four such incidents in the past. In each of these, a flying Mirage 2000 has, suddenly and without command from the pilot, jerked its nose towards the ground. Then, as spontaneously, the...

News agency ANI quoting Indian Air Force sources claimed Mirage 2000 fighters of the Indian Air Force struck and destroyed a “major terrorist camp” across the Line of Control early on Tuesday. The report comes hours after Pakistan claimed Indian Air Force jets had crossed the Line of Control, following which Pakistani fighters were scrambled. The air strike mark a major escalation in tension with Pakistan, which has been high since the suicide bomb attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama on February 14 left over 40 jawans dead. ANI, quoting IAF sources, said the attack occurred around 03.30am on...

On April 24, 2018, the Luxeuil air base 116 welcomed several Mirage 2000N aircraft from the fighter squadron 2/4 “La Fayette,” as part of their farewell tour. After 30 years of service in the French Air Force, the strategic bomber, specialized in nuclear deterrence, will cease to serve the French armed forces in 2018. Squadron 2/4 “La Fayette,” which will now use Rafale aircraft, has organized a farewell tour, which stops at each of the bases where the Mirage 2000N aircraft have served. During this ceremony, Colonel Jean-Patrice Le Saint, commander of air base 116, also inaugurated the base’s museum,...

According to the Brazilian defense website Poder Aereo, the Argentinian government received a proposal from Paris for the acquisition of between 20 to 24 second-hand Dassault Mirage 2000C fighter jets. Assuming the veracity of the report, the deal will join a long and contrived story, as Buenos Aires has been attempting to find a new fighter jet for its Air Force for several years now. In the early 1980s, the Argentinian Air Force boasted a respectable fighter force, comprised of a mix of French and American models, all of them developed during the 1950s. Defensionem suggests that, at the time,...

The suspected crash of yet another of Taiwan’s French fighter jets has again focused attention on the rising maintenance costs of the ageing aircraft and Taipei’s shrinking defence budget. Taiwan’s air force grounded all of its Mirage jets after a single-seat Mirage 2000 disappeared from the radar 34 minutes after take-off on Tuesday night from a base in Hsinchu across the Taiwan Strait from Fujian province during a routine training exercise, air force deputy commander Lieutenant General Chang Che-ping said on Wednesday. “The military will continue searching day and night until the pilot is safely rescued. There is no so-called...

Around noon on Oct. 4, 2017, a team of 12 U.S. Army Special Forces operators and 30 soldiers from the Nigerien Security and Intelligence Battalion were departing the village of Tongo Tongo, near the Nigerien-Malian border, when they were ambushed by roughly 50 insurgents from an “ISIS-affiliated group” riding in a dozen technicals—pickup trucks armed with heavy machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. According to an Oct. 23 briefing by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, the U.S. military didn’t record the Green Berets requesting air support until an hour after the...

The Ministry of National Defense is suing the French government for alleged kickbacks paid to French officials for the purchase of Dassault Mirage 2000 fighters between 1992 and 1997, an official said. The ministry has acquired the services of an elite French legal firm for one year for the suit, costing NT$177 million (US$5.86 million), a senior official who has knowledge of the matter said. The France-based legal firm is to represent Taiwan until July 23 next year, but the ministry is to continue the case if the court of arbitration does not reach a verdict by July next year,...

The Republic of China Air Force’s (ROCAF’s) 499th Tactical Fighter Wing has unveiled four Mirage 2000s (serials 2003, 2017, 2020 and 2055) with identical special liveries to commemorate 20 years of service for the type. A ceremony was held at the wing’s home base at Hsinchu on June 2. This was attended by Defence Minister Feng Shih-kua and General of Air Command Shen Yi-Ming. The latter was part of the first batch of pilots trained on the Mirage 2000. Also present were ROCAF senior officers and past and present Mirage 2000 flight crews. The paint scheme features a stylised dragon...

A 28-year-old Hellenic Air Force pilotsustained minor injuries Monday after ejecting from a Mirage 2000 fighter jet south of the Sporades islands group, but the incident brought to the fore the issue of old and malfunctioning aircraft currently in use. According to most initial assessments by experienced military officials, the Mirage crashed because of a malfunctioning engine which the pilot was unable to restart. The 28-year-old pilot was in a military hospital Monday with a dislocated shoulder, which he sustained while ejecting from the aircraft. He had taken off from Tanagra Air Base, north of Athens, in the morning on...

Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) Mirage fighters purchased from France have superb performance and Taiwan has no plans to decommission them ahead of schedule, Deputy National Defense Minister Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明) said on Monday. The Apple Daily, a local newspaper, reported that 19 years have passed since Taiwan began to take delivery of Mirage fighters in 1997. Taiwan has been asking France to upgrade the performance of the 56 Mirage fighter jets since 2012, but Paris has been dragging its feet, and even gave an "exorbitant" price tag, which resulted in the MND not accepting the deal, the report said. There...

An Emirati fighter jet suffered a "technical malfunction" and crashed Monday while taking part in the Saudi-led war against Shiite rebels in Yemen, killing the plane's two pilots, authorities said. Bystanders apparently found the remains of the Mirage fighter near Yemen's port city of Aden, while amateur video and photos posted on a local news website showed onlookers rifling through the debris and standing on a piece of the plane's distinctive triangle-shaped wing. The United Arab Emirates' state-run WAM news agency earlier announced the "loss of a fighter aircraft." It did not immediately report the pilots' deaths. The state-run Saudi...

In recent weeks, the French Air Force has significantly expanded the scope of its strike opportunities within Operation Chammal, its air strikes against Daesh. On October 14, 2015, a Rafale for the first time dropped fired a BLU-126 bomb fitted with the Air-to-Ground Modular Weapon (AASM) with GPS / laser guidance. The introduction of this weapon into operational service was decided on October 1 by the air force command, in the wake of operational test and evaluation carried out by the program team at the air force’s Centre d’Expertise Aérienne Militaire (CEAM) trials unit at Mont-de-Marsan air base. On October...

The 'new' Mirage 2000, redesignated the Mirage 2000 I, is almost incomparable with the original jet courtesy a host of new systems onboard. NEW DELHI: 16 years ago, I flew onboard Mirage 2000s of the Indian Air Force over Tiger Hill within days of India handing Pakistan a humiliating defeat in the Kargil war. It remains, what I consider, the biggest exclusive in my career as a journalist. I had actually been cleared to fly in an operational sortie during the war by the then Defence Minister George Fernandes, but in July 1999, Pakistani forces were shell-shocked by wave after...

The United Arab Emirates has a significant vested interest in the security of the Iraqi state against the notorious Islamic State (IS, ISIS) terror group which has wrecked havoc across the north of that country. Accordingly it has offered the Iraqi government some of its air force's (under ten apparently) French-made Dassault Mirage 2000 jets. Iraq's Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi is expected to be in the UAE in March whereby he will discuss the delivery of these jets and accompanying armaments. This is quite significant. For one thing Iraq's Air Force has been waiting for some time to refurbish its...

General Denis Mercier, The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, is visiting Israel this week. According to the Air Force website, so for into his visit, the General has met with the Israeli Air Force Commander in Chief Gen. Amir Eshel, who introduced him to the day-to-day challenges of the skies of the Middle East, and discussed the strengthening of cooperation between the two forces and examining the interests which are common to both. Later on, the general was impressed by the IAF capabilities presented to him at Tel Nof Airbase and the Southern Hatzerim Airbase, where he...

It looks as though Indian combat aircraft are going to continue flying for many years to come with Israeli designator pods. A Rafael official confirmed to Air&Cosmos during the Defexpo Show that the company’s Litening G4 had been selected last year following an IAF call for tenders for 164 pods to equip its entire fleet of fighter-bombers. Deliveries under this huge order (the largest ever recorded outside the US, according to Rafael) are expected to get under way by the end of this year. When completed, they will bring the total number of Litening pods in IAF service to approximately...

French Air Force’s Nuclear Deterrence Drills with the Mirage 2000N The French Air Force have conveyed a complex drill whose aim was to test the nuclear capability of the service, the French Ministry of Defence said. The exercise featured a Mirage 2000N jet carrying ASMP-A missiles and took place on Sept. 23, 2013. The scenario featured a single Mirage 2000N from 2/4 La Fayette Squadron, based in Avord AB in a mission that lasted 3 hours. The fighter flew to the operative area at high altitude, joined a C-135FR tanker for in-flight refueling then turned towards the target, low level,...

Brazilian Air Force to Retire Mirage 2000 by Year’s End Brazil plans to withdraw from service 12 Mirage 2000C/B fighters operating with the 1st Air Defense Group, currently providing the mainstay of the country’s air-defense force. The jet fighters also known as ‘Jaguars’ are operating from Annapolis, about 140 km from the capital Brasilia. These fighters were acquired from French Air Force surplus in 2005 for $74 millions to replace older Mirage IIIBR fighter jets. France delivered three batches of the fighters in 2006, 2007 and 2008. At the time, the life expectancy of these refurbished fighters should last for...

Libya may get ex-UAE Mirage 2000s Libya may procure the United Arab Emirates’ 68 Mirage 2000 fighters once the UAE replaces them with Rafales. Brigadier General Abdel-Moneim said Ayad, Director of Public Relations at Libya’s Interior Ministry, was quoted by the Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying that the UAE has offered to transfer to Libya its 68 Dassault Mirage 2000s. The UAE is considering replacing its Mirage 2000s with Rafales. Air & Cosmos magazine recently reported that all the technical and financial terms of the Rafale sale have been settled and that only a state to state defence...