Why Are Ukraine's Mirage 2000 Fighters Carrying 40-Year-Old Missiles?
Arming a Mirage 2000 with the old Magic 2 missile handicaps the jet—by limiting its reach during air-defenses sorties.
Ukraine has signed a deal with France for 100 new Rafale fighters
The new jets could take a decade to arrive
In the meantime, Ukraine’s ex-French Mirage 2000 fighters are flying with old missiles
The Magic 2 missile lacks the range, speed and maneuverability of newer munitions
Ukraine’s ex-French Dassault Mirage 2000 fighters are chasing down Russian cruise missiles with aging Magic 2 infrared-guided air-to-air missiles. But better French-made fighters—and presumably better missiles—are coming.
That’s because, on Monday, Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the planned acquisition of 100 Dassault Rafale fighters for the Ukrainian Air Force. The twin-engine, supersonic Rafale is a generation more advanced than the single-engine, supersonic Mirage 2000. “These are among the best aircraft capable of ensuring our defense,” Zelensky wrote.
The France-Ukraine Rafale deal comes just weeks after Ukraine inked a separate deal with Sweden for up to 150 single-engine, supersonic JAS-39 Gripen fighters. Ukraine may also seek new Lockheed Martin F-16s—also single-engine, supersonic jets—from the United States.
Altogether, the Ukrainian air force could get hundreds of new fighters over the next decades, enough to replace the service’s existing ex-Soviet jets and secondhand Mirage 2000s and F-16s and double the front-line fighter fleet. Thusly equipped, the Ukrainian air force would be one of the biggest and most powerful in Europe.
Financing is a problem, of course. The 250 Rafales and Gripens will cost tens of billions of dollars. The European Union has been debating a mechanism for using frozen Russian funds to finance military aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy struck an optimistic tone. With Rafales, Gripens and F-16s, “the Ukrainian air force will be able to carry out all the necessary defense missions and guarantee our security,” he stated. At present, however, the dozen or so 1980s-vintage Mirage 2000s that France has donated to Ukraine are fighting under serious constraints.
Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.
