By Pierre Tran
Paris – The Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet may be “an old bird,” but there was a large supply of spare parts, which will be a “big advantage” for the Ukrainian air force, a French ex-fighter pilot said.
It was not clear how many of the French-built fighters Paris will send to Kyiv, but there should be no concern over logistical support, the French officer said, when asked about how Ukraine could maintain a Mirage fleet.
President Emmanuel Macron made a surprise June 6 announcement France would send, with coalition nations, the Dassault Aviation Mirage 2000-5, to back Ukraine’s bid to recover land seized by Russia since an assault in February 2022.
Meanwhile, the Mirage 2000-5 fighter armed with the MBDA Mica air-to-air missile will be highly effective, pushing back the strike capability of Russian fighter-bombers by some 100 km, a second French former fighter pilot said.
The Ukrainian air force will need to service the Mirage and Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters due to be shipped from a coalition of Nato allies, as well as maintain an aging fleet of Sukhoi and Mig fighters dating back to the Soviet era.
On French support, there was an ample pool of spares, as the French air force has been flying the Mirage since the 1980s and 1990s, the first officer said.
Sweden has also offered to send over the Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter to support Ukraine, but Stockholm has put that on hold, to give time for Ukraine to prepare for reception of the F-16.
Ukrainian pilots lacked “operational experience” with the Mirage, the first officer said, and there was need for them to gain some 300-400 flight hours in training. That experience could be acquired by flying in France, Poland, and other Nato states.
There will be need for “war time training,” otherwise the pilots will not get past their first mission, the officer said. The pilots will need intense training, flying three times a day.
Some four years was needed to train a fighter pilot, the French air force website said, but the first officer said that was training in “peace time.”
Instructors at Cazau air base, southwest France, were training Ukrainian pilots on the Alpha Jet training aircraft, the French armed forces have said, showing pictures on a social media platform. The pictures include soldiers firing the Caesar artillery pieces.
Those Cazau instructors were some of the best pilots, the officer said, and were “motivated to support those guys.”
The Ukrainian pilots were young and would learn quickly, the officer said. That training would include how to deal with the Sukhoi Su 34 Fullback fighter-bomber, which flies with guided bombs equipped with Glonass, the Russian equivalent of GPS.
The air defense mission was critical, the officer said, with Russian pilots dropping 50-60 tons of bombs daily on Kharkiv, the second Ukrainian city, near the northern border.
The Ukrainian air force needed fighters to intercept those fighter-bombers, which had a strike range of some 60-70 km, flying in Russian airspace behind the front line.
Game Changer
The Mirage-Mica package was a “game change,” the second ex-fighter pilot said. The air defense mission meant the French-built fighter could not only protect the skies over Ukraine, but also drive back the Russian air-to-ground strike.
An aerial combat capability of the Mirage-Mica gave tactical advantage over Russian pilots, the second officer said, pointing to a data link connecting the fighter with the missile.
That data link meant the Mirage could fire the Mica, with the fighter using its onboard radar to guide the missile to the Russian fighter, and at the last minute switching on the missile’s two guidance systems – a target-seeking radar and infra-red sensor – to light up and lock on to the enemy aircraft.
The small size of the missile made it hard to detect in flight, and a delayed switching on of its own seekers – which allowed it to be detected by the enemy – gave little time for evasion, the officer said. The Mirage could use the data link to switch targets when the weapon was in flight, bringing further confusion to the enemy.
That French-built weapon meant Ukraine will be gaining the beyond visual range capability for the first time, a missile specialist said. It was not clear what U.S. missile would be supplied with the F-16.
“Mica outperforms other BVR (beyond visual range) missiles with its unique stealthy interception capability provided by its silent seeker,” MBDA said on its website.
The Mica range was reported to be some 80 km, but the tactical advantage with the Mirage meant the Russian fighters would withdraw further back within Russia, the officer said, to avoid air combat and loss of the pilot and aircraft.
The Mirage may be aging, the officer said, but the stealthy characteristics of the Mica meant the fighter was seen with quite some respect.
The French air “doctrine,” the officer said, was also to fly as a coordinated team of two to four fighters, bringing complexity to the concept of operations. That would make it tough for Russian pilots, who flew mainly as individual fighters.
The Russian air force outnumbered the Ukrainian fleet perhaps five to one, the officer said, but the tactical advantage of Mirage-Mica could help even the odds.
But training the Ukrainian pilots would take at least 18 months, maybe two years, the officer said, and require many instructors.
The Mirage 2000 made its maiden flight in 1978 and entered service with the French air force in 1984 in the air defense version, Dassault said on its website.
France has sent to Ukraine the Scalp cruise missile and Safran AASM Hammer, a powered smart bomb. These weapons have been adapted to Ukrainian fighters, and could be fitted to the Mirage, giving it air-to-ground strike capability.
Greece flies its Mirage 2000-5 with the Scalp cruise missile.
The importance of air superiority could be seen in the words of the late British field marshal Bernard Montgomery, the first officer said: “If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and we lose it quickly.”