Mirage Makeover

摘要

The delivery of the fi rst upgraded Mirage 2000D fi ghter confi rms France’s choice to use it as a relatively lowcost asset as long as possible. The midlife update (MLU) program breathes new life into an attack aircraft that has proved its worth in Africa’s Sahel region, fi ghting terrorists as part of Operation Barkhane. Thanks to feedback since 2013, the program deals with obsolescence and adapts the two-seater to the ongoing asymmetric war. The contract Dassault Aviation received from French procurement agency DGA in 2016 was overdue; it had been discussed since 2005. Gen. Andre Lanata, France’s air chief of staŠ in 2017, expressed concern at the time about “prohibitive obsolescences” from 2022, since the Mirage 2000D entered service in 1993.