Dassault Mirage Fighter, Explained

Dassault Aviation is arguably the most famous name in French military aviation history. 

I would posit that Dassault is to French military aviation what Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division is to American military aviation, what BAE is to British military aviation, what Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is to Japanese military aviation, and what Fokker and Messerschmitt were to German military aviation in WWI and WWII respectively.  

Dassault’s most famous series is their Mirage family of jet-powered fighter-bombers which turned out to be a poetically apropos moniker for a series of warplanes that ended up seeing so much desert combat.  

Where It Began: Mirage III 

Well, technically and sequentially speaking, it began with the Mirage I and II, but since those were both mere prototypes, we shall cut to the first Mirage to go operational, the Mirage III, which made her maiden fight on November 17, 1956, and was officially introduced into operational service. On October 24, 1958, she made history as the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 airspeed twice in horizontal flight. 

A total of 1,422 Mirage IIIs were built. Export customers included the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Israeli Air Force, Argentine Air Force, South African Air Force, and the Pakistani Air Force, which still uses the plane today.  

The Next Generations: Mirage F1 and Mirage 2000 

The F1 iteration of the Mirage made her maiden flight on December 23, 1966, and was officially introduced in 1973. 

The warbird's max speed capability was Mach 2.2 (2,338 kph/1,453 mph). She had been first conceptualized in 1963 when the French Air Force drafted its specifications for an all-weather low-altitude interceptor with supersonic interception capabilities, the ability to use short and rudimentarily-equipped landing strips, and an approach for landing at less than 140 knots (260 kph/161 mph). 

A total of 720 F1 airframes were assembled from 1966 to 1992.  

Unlike the Mirage III, the F1 did not have a delta wing. In addition to serving her native France, the F1 would be exported to thirteen foreign countries; three in Europe, five Middle Eastern, and five African nations. 

As for the Mirage 2000, she wasn’t the twenty-first century, but rather made her maiden flight during the heyday of disco, i.e. March 10, 1978, and was officially introduced in July 1984, and is thus categorized as a Fourth Generation jet fighter.  

The Mirage 2000 shares the general delta-wing layout with the Mirage III, but incorporates avionics advances that help overcome the latter's aerodynamic limitations, such as a low-set, thin wing with a leading-edge sweep back of fifty-eight degrees and a trailing-edge forward sweep of 3.5 degrees. She improves upon the F1 in terms of compactness (somewhat analogous to the compactness of the F-16), air-to-ground capabilities, and a digitalized cockpit.  

The total production of the Mirage 2000 amounted to 601 specimens. 

Operational Performance/Combat History  

Might as well go in the chronological order of the Mirages’ operational debuts. Oui? 

According to the Flyajetfighter.com website “The Dassault Mirage III has seen extensive combat throughout its service life, participating in numerous conflicts and engagements. One of its most notable appearances was in the 1967 Six-Day War, where Israeli Mirage IIIs played a crucial role in achieving air superiority and striking enemy ground targets. The aircraft also saw action in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1982 Lebanon War…In addition to its service with Israel, the Mirage III has participated in various conflicts involving other operators. The aircraft was used extensively by Argentina during the 1982 Falklands War, where it was involved in air-to-air combat against British forces. The Mirage III also saw action during the South African Border War and the Iran-Iraq War.” 

The Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi Air Force (IqAF) made good use of its F1EQ variants during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, employing their planes for air-to-ground and air-to-air operations alike. 

In the latter role, the Iraqi F1 drivers acquitted themselves fairly well, downing thirty-five Islamic Republic of Irani Air Force (IRIAF) aircraft in exchange for a loss of, anywhere from seven to thirty-three of their own. 

Most of these IRIAF victims, I use that word very loosely, were F-4 Phantom IIs and F-5E Tiger IIs, there were a lucky quartet of IqAF F1 actually, managed to shoot down Iranian F-14 Tomcats, thus making history as the first killers of the Tomcat in air-to-air combat.  

As was the case with Saddam’s F1 pilots, the apartheid-era South African Air Force (SAAF) used them heavily in both the ground attack role and an air-to-air role alike. The opposition in this case was Cuban Air Force MiG-21 "Fishbed" and MiG-23 "Flogger" pilots during the South African Border War of 1966-1989. The SAAF Mirages’ exact air-to-air kill tally for this conflict is difficult to ascertain. However, it is known that the F1-CZ variant enabled the SAAF to get its first confirmed aerial victory since the Korean War when, on November 6, 1981, 

Major JJ Rankin used his warbird's two 30mm cannons to down a MiG-21MF flown by Lieutenant Danacio Valdez. In addition, South African Mirages suffered only one combat loss, at the hands of an SA-13 "Gopher" surface-to-air missile (SAM).  

The Mirage 2000 has proven itself particularly capable in the hands of the Indian Air Force (IAF), who first deployed her in combat in June 1999 during the Kargil War AKA Operation Vijay ("Victory") against Pakistan, using 1,000-lb (453.59 kg) bombs fitted with improvised laser kits. IAF Maj Gen Jagjit Singh praised the planes' performance in a February 2019 article for India Defence Review. 

The Indians also used their 2000s with telling effect in Operation Bandar, which was a retaliatory mission conducted by India in response to the 2019 Pulwama terror attack. 

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS).

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