Surprise! Ukraine's Mirage 2000 Fighters Are Now Packing 40-Mile Missiles.
A MICA missile makes its first appearance on a Ukrainian Mirage.
One Ukrainian air force pilot loves his ex-French Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter. He doesn’t necessarily love the 40-year-old Magic 2 short-range, infrared-guided air-to-air missiles that, until recently, were the only missiles anyone outside of the Ukrainian air force had ever seen on the supersonic fighter in Ukrainian service.
But now we’ve seen proof the Mirages—around a dozen of which France has pledged to Ukraine—are carrying much better missiles into action in the sky over Ukraine. A photo that circulated online over the weekend depicts a Ukrainian Mirage with an MBDA MICA long-range air-to-air under its belly.
There are several versions of the MICA including an infrared version, but the missile hanging under that Ukrainian Mirage appears to be a MICA EM—for “electromagnetic.” It is, in other words, a radar-guided missile with a tiny radar seeker in its nose—and a very important upgrade to the Ukrainian Mirages’ armament.
