Mirage 2000: used by the Israeli Air Force in operations Kargil-1, Kargil-2 and Balakot. France sends heroes of "ground attack" to Ukraine
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French President Emmanuel Macron outlined plans to deliver Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots in France. With the June 6 announcement, the Mirage 2000-5 will be the second Western fighter jet to enter the Ukrainian Air Force after the F-16.
"Tomorrow we are starting a new cooperation and announcing the delivery of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets from French manufacturer Dassault to Ukraine and training Ukrainian pilots in France," Macron said in an interview on French television.
The statement came after the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings at Normandy during World War II.
President Macron said pilot training would begin this summer. "It usually takes five to six months. The pilots will be trained in France by the end of the year," he added, without giving the exact number of fighter jets to be delivered.
Macron noted that Ukraine needs to mobilize tens of thousands more soldiers to the front and faces "huge challenges" in training its soldiers, stressing the urgent need for qualified personnel. France will also equip and train a full brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers to ensure their defense upon their return to Ukraine.
The development is welcome news for Kyiv, which is actively seeking the latest fighter jets from its allies. The move follows a recent announcement that the Ukrainian Air Force will receive Saab 340 airborne early warning and control aircraft from Sweden.
Sweden is considering supplying Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine. However, other European countries have reportedly asked Sweden to suspend potential deliveries of F-16 fighter jets and focus instead.
Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium are set to supply Kiev with more than 60 US-made F-16 jets. The international joint effort is aimed at strengthening Ukraine's defense capabilities as the conflict continues.
The Mirage 2000-5 is equipped with RDY radars, a mechanically scanned pulse-Doppler system with look-down/shoot-down capability. These radars offer significantly improved capabilities to track multiple targets simultaneously compared to the older RDI (Radar Doppler à Impulsions, an X-band pulse-Doppler radar with high pulse repetition rate) and RDM (Radar Doppler Multifunction, a multimode pulse-Doppler radar), and improved air-to-ground capabilities.
Such capabilities will be particularly beneficial for Ukraine, which is constantly under threat from low-flying Russian cruise missiles and kamikaze drones. The Mirage 2000-5 may also be equipped with advanced weapons such as the MICA beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile.
Although the Mirage 2000-5 is primarily optimized for air-to-air combat, it may also be adapted to use air-to-ground weapons already supplied by France to Ukraine. These include the SCALP-EG cruise missile and the Hummer rocket-assisted precision bomb.
Previously, it was suggested that France would deliver the older 2000C models, which will be phased out in 2022. Earlier this year, Ukrainian Air Force Commander General Mykola Oleschuk made a specific request for Mirage 2000D aircraft.
Therefore, it cannot be excluded that France may supply Ukraine with Mirage 2000C or Mirage 2000D aircraft in the future.
The Mirage fighter continues to demonstrate its relevance in modern warfare. The aircraft has a colorful history, having been deployed during major conflicts such as the Gulf War, providing high-altitude air defense for the US Air Force's U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. In addition, the Mirage 2000 supported NATO forces during the Bosnian and Kosovo wars.
The Mirage 2000 was widely accepted in the international market. Countries such as India, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Greece, Egypt, Brazil, Qatar and Peru purchased the aircraft.
India in particular used the Mirage 2000 extensively in various conflicts. During the Kargil conflict in 1999, the Indian Air Force's Mirage 2000 played a key role in fighting enemy forces entrenched in mountainous terrain. They contributed to the Tiger Hill and Munso Daro operations.
In February 2019, India overlooked Su-30 MKIs during the Balakot airstrikes in response to the Pulwama attack, deploying a fleet of Mirage 2000s equipped with Spice bombs, demonstrating the aircraft's precision targeting capabilities.
In 2022, the Indian Air Force used the Mirage 2000 multirole fighter jet to carry out precision ground strikes with laser-guided bombs to flush out Pakistani soldiers who had infiltrated Indian territory. IAF officials publicly acknowledged their involvement in clearing Pakistani terrorists from Indian posts in Gurez Machar sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
For Operation Kargil-II, the IAF deployed four Mirage 2000 jets to launch "precision ground strikes" with laser-guided bombs to hit Pakistani soldiers. The TOI report claims that by the time the Pakistani intruders realized, they had already occupied a strategic hill overlooking the Neelum Valley.
We did what we had to do. The Army had asked us for assistance and we did the needful," the official said in response to a question on the Kargil-II incident. According to IAF officials, Pakistan has concentrated almost its entire air force of 200 frontline fighters in the northern sector bordering Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
During this period, the Pakistani high command has activated 15 satellite bases in addition to six "main" air bases and increased its fighter strength compared to 12-16 squadrons in the IAF's Western Air Command. "But if orders were given, we were ready to overpower them."
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