At the beginning of the month, France’s Minister of Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, confirmed that the first batch of Mirage 2000 fighters intended to equip the Ukrainian Air Force would be transferred at the beginning of 2025. However, after the announcements made by the official, which were preceded by those of President Emmanuel Macron in June confirming the transfer of the aircraft, various questions arose regarding the operation.
The doubts centered around which version of the Mirage 2000 would be transferred, with speculation, based on the aforementioned announcements, suggesting it could be the 2000C version, already retired from the French Air and Space Force, or the 2000-5 version, an upgraded version of the “C” with enhanced capabilities. Another question is that the French government has yet to confirm the number of aircraft that will be transferred to the Ukrainian Air Force starting in early 2025.
Thus, according to an article published by the portal La Tribune, several uncertainties have begun to be cleared up regarding the transfer of Mirage 2000s to Ukraine. According to the French media outlet, the first batch of planes to be transferred to the Ukrainian Air Force will consist of three fighters corresponding to the 2000-5 version.
This is significant, as the Mirage 2000-5 offers improvements over the C version in terms of radar and air-to-ground combat capabilities. More specifically, these aircraft have enhanced capabilities thanks to their RDY radar, which uses mechanical pulse Doppler scanning with look-down/shoot-down capability. This radar, compared to the RDM and RDI radars found in the Mirage 2000C, can track up to eight targets simultaneously and offers superior air-to-ground capability.
Additionally, Lecornu confirmed that the Mirage 2000s provided to Ukraine will undergo modernization work on these capabilities, as well as on self-protection measures and electronic warfare systems—critical capabilities for any weapon system deployed in a high-intensity conflict involving a multiplicity of very short, short, medium, and long-range air defense systems.
Regarding this last point, and on a speculative note, it is possible that the Mirage 2000-5s from the French Air and Space Force could be equipped with the latest version of the ICMS Mk 3 countermeasure system, which is present in the export version of the 2000-5 but not in the aircraft still in service in France.
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