Dassault Mirage 2000

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The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed as a lightweight fighter based on the Mirage III in the late 1970s for the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air).

The Mirage 2000 evolved into a multirole aircraft with several variants developed, with sales to a number of nations.

The variants include the Mirage 2000N and 2000D strike variants, the improved Mirage 2000-5 and several export variants.

Over 600 aircraft were built and it is in service in nine countries as of 2009.

Development

Previous projects

The Mirage 2000 evolved from a series of Dassault projects performed from 1965 to 1975.

The first in this series was a project known as the "Anglo-French Variable Geometry" (AFVG) swing-wing aircraft, begun in 1965.

The collaboration was a fiasco, with the French pulling out in 1967.

The British stayed with the concept and formed another collaboration with the Germans and Italians, which eventually produced the Panavia Tornado multirole combat aircraft.

Dassault then worked on several new concepts evolved from the "Mirage G" variable-geometry experimental prototype, resulting in a sophisticated design with the designation "Avion de Combat Futur (ACF / Future Combat Aircraft)".

The French Air Force developed a requirement for developing the Avion de Combat Futur (ACF) (French: "Future combat aircraft") in the early 1970s.

Dassault offered its twin-engine Super Mirage for the ACF requirement. However, the Super Mirage was to be too costly and was canceled in 1975.

Mirage 2000 project

Dassault had been working on other fighter options in the meantime, partly because the export potential of the ACF was not promising.

These alternatives were smaller, simpler, and cheaper than the ACF, and took the form of a number of "Mini-Mirage (Mimi)" concepts.

These concepts congealed into an aircraft known at first as the "Super Mirage III", then the "Delta 1000", "Delta 2000", "Super Mirage 2000", and finally just "Mirage 2000".

The ACF was a strike aircraft first and an interceptor second, while the Mirage 2000 was exactly the reverse, but the Mirage 2000 was much more affordable.

So When the ACF was cancelled, Dassault offered the single-engine Mirage 2000 as an alternative and was given approval to proceed by the French government on 18 December 1975.

This was a return to the first generation Mirages, but with several important innovations that tried to solve their shortcomings.

Project chiefs were B.C. Valliéres, J.Cabrière, J.C. Veber and B.Revellin-Falcoz.

There was another important reason for Dassault to push the Mirage 2000. Development of this small aircraft would also give the company a competitor to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, which had defeated the Dassault Mirage F1 in a contest for a new fighter for the air forces of Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Norway.

Small single-engined fighters were clearly the most appreciated by foreign customers, as experience with the larger, twin-engined Mirage 4000 would show.

Design phase

Radar development was critical in the Mirage 2000 project.

Despite many obstacles, Marcel Dassault felt that a prototype could be flying in a year and a half, with operational introduction in 1982.

In fact, the program was delayed, but by the standards of modern defense programs it was not all that big a schedule slip.

The prototype made its first flight in 10 March 1978 with test pilot Jean Coreau at the controls.

Despite all the new technologies applied, basing the new aircraft on the Mirage III allowed the development of a prototype in only 27 months from the program start to the first flight.

In that summer, at the Farnborough Airshow, this machine displayed not only excellent handling capabilities, but also a full control at 204 km/h and 26 degree angle of attack.

This was totally unexpected in a delta-wing fighter, and proved how CCD controls were capable of overcoming the delta wing shortcomings related to poor low-speed control, while retaining the advantages, such as low-drag, low radar cross section, ideal high speed aerodynamics and simplicity, provided by the absence of horizontal tail surfaces.

The Mirage 2000 was one of the stars of that airshow and became the direct adversary for the F-16, which shared the CCD control and relaxed stability.

The 02 Prototype followed in 18 September 1978 and 03 in 26 September 1979. After 400 hours of flight, they were sent to CEV (Centre d'Essais en Vol).

The 04 Prototype was a demonstrator made by Dassault for its own purposes, and finally the first dual-seat Mirage 2000B flew in 11 October 1980.

The first production example flew on 20 November 1982, and the aircraft went into operational service in November 1982.

They were practically pre-production aircraft, because they had no SARH missiles (RDM-1 radar) and the first model of SNECMA 'Super Atar' M-53-2 engine.

Design

Using the concept of the delta wing interceptor seen on the Dassault Mirage III, Dassault built a new fighter jet design.

This configuration is not ideal with regard to maneuverability, low-altitude flight, and distance required for take-off and landing, but has advantages in high-speed flight characteristics, simplicity of construction, low radar signature and internal volume.

Features

The Mirage 2000 features a low-set thin delta wing with cambered section, 58 degrees leading-edge sweep and moderately blended root; area-ruled; two small canard wings, fixed, placed just behind the air intakes.

The flight controls on the wings are: four elevons (+15/−30°), four slats.

Its neutral point is in front of its center of gravity, giving the fighter relaxed stability to enhance maneuverability.

It incorporated negative stability and fly-by-wire controls with four analog computers.

An airbrake is fitted above and below each wing in an arrangement very similar to that of the Mirage III.

A noticeably taller tailfin allows the pilot to retain control at higher angles of attack, assisted by the small strakes mounted along each air intake.

A runway arresting hook or a fairing for a brake parachute can be fitted under the tail.

The landing roll is reduced by robust carbon brakes.

The backward-retracting, steerable nose gear features dual wheels, while the main gear features single wheels and retracts inward into the wings.

A fixed, removable refueling probe can be attached in front of the cockpit, offset slightly to the right of center.

Structure

Multi-spar metal wing; elevons have carbon-fiber skins with AG5 light alloy honeycomb cores; carbon-fiber/light alloy honeycomb panel covers avionics bay; most of the tailfin and all of the rudder are skinned with boron/epoxy/carbon; the rudder has a light alloy honeycomb core.

Flight control system

The aircraft has a redundant fly-by-wire automatic flight control system, providing a high degree of agility and easier handling, together with stability and precise control in all situations.

The fighter's airframe is naturally unstable, and so it is coupled with FBW commands to obtain the best agility; however, in override mode it is still possible to exceed a 270 deg/sec roll rate and allows the aircraft to reach 11 g (within the 12 g structural limit), instead of 9 g when engaged.

The system is reliable with no known losses due to its failure.

Landing gear

The aircraft uses a retractable tricycle type landing gear by Messier-Dowty, with twin nosewheels and a single wheel on each main gear.

Hydraulic retraction, nosewheels rearward, main units inward. Oleo-pneumatic shock absorbers. Electrohydraulic nosewheel steering (+/-45 degrees).

Manual disconnect permits the nosewheel unit to caster through 360 degrees for ground towing.

The landing roll was reduced by using robust carbon brakes.

Cockpit

The Mirage 2000 is available as a single-seat or two-seat multi-role fighter. The pilot flies the aircraft by means of a centre stick and left hand throttles, with both incorporating hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) controls. The pilot sits on a SEM MB Mk10] zero-zero ejection seat (a license-built version of the British Martin-Baker Mark 10).

Unlike in the F-16, the pilot sits in a conventional position, without the steep backward slope of the F-16 seat.

The cockpit is quite small, and there is no bubble canopy. Despite this, the cockpit visibility is quite good, but less than the F-16, especially in the 'six o'clock' (rearwards-looking) position.

The instrument panel (in the Mirage 2000 C) is dominated by a Sextant VE-130 Heads Up Display which presents data relating to flight control, navigation, target engagement and weapon firing, and the VMC-180 radar screen located centrally below it.

To the lower left is a stores management panel, above which are the navigation instruments and altimeter.

The right half of the instrument panel accommodates the engine and systems displays. Located on the left side of the cockpit, just ahead of the throttle, are controls for the communications equipment, including the Have Quick secure radio.

Avionics

Avionics for the Mirage-2000B/C include the Sagem ULISS 52 inertial navigation system (INS), TRT radio altimeter, Dassault Electronique Type 2084 central digital computer, Digibus digital data bus and Sextant Avionique Type 90 air data computer.

The communication equipment package includes the LMT NRAI-7A IFF transponder, IO-300-A marker beacon receiver, TRT ERA 7000 V/UHF com transceiver, TRT ERA 7200 UHF or EAS secure voice communications.

Radar

Thomson-CSF RDM multi-mode radar or Dassault Electronique/Thomson-CSF RDI pulse-Doppler radar for the Mirage 2000C/D, each with an operating range of 54 nm (100 km / 62 miles).

This unit was an evolution of Cyrano radars, with more modern processing units and look-down/shoot-down capabilities.

The effective range is around 60–70 km with modest capabilities against low-level targets.

It is linked with Super R.530F missiles, and equipped the first 37 aircraft delivered to the French Air Force and most exported Mirages.

It has multirole capabilities that enable its use in air-to-surface tasks, including anti-ship roles.

The very early RDM were still not linked with the Super R.530F missiles, but it was solved quickly.

Some recent export versions of the aircraft carry the Thales RDY (Radar Doppler Multitarget) developed for the Mirage 2000-5.

Thomson-CSF RDM

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