Dassault Mirage 2000

Mirage 2000N and 2000D

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The Dassault Mirage 2000N is a variant of the Mirage 2000 designed for nuclear strike.

It forms the core of the French air-based tactical nuclear deterrent.

The Mirage 2000D is its conventional attack counterpart.

Development

The Mirage 2000N was designed to French requirements for an aircraft to replace the older Mirage IVP.

Dassault received a contract to build two prototypes.

The aircraft first flew on February 3, 1986. Seventy four were built up to 1993.

The Mirage 2000N is based on the Mirage 2000B two-seat trainer, but features considerable changes.

The airframe was strengthened for low-level flight and fitted with an Antilope 5 radar, which is used for terrain following, navigation and ground mapping, and which can follow terrain at 691 mph (1,112 km/h).

Other avionic features are twin INS's and moving map displays for both the pilot and weapon systems officer.

The Mirage 2000N can carry one ASMP medium-range nuclear missile, and can also carry two MATRA Magic AAM's for self defence.

Other protection features include the Sabre jamming system and the Spirale chaff system.

Because the extra seat decreases range, a pair of drop tanks are carried.

Since the Mirage 2000N's standard weapon was the ASMP, which was carried on the centerline pylon, that meant it couldn't carry a centerline tank, but a distinctive big 2,000 liter (530 US gallon) underwing drop tank with a bulbous nose was developed to more than compensate

The first batch of 30 aircraft for the French Air Force had a sole nuclear capability, and these were designated Mirage 2000N-K1.

These did not have the Spirale chaff system, and carried a pair of AN.52 free-fall nuclear bombs before the ASMP was ready.

The later batch of 44 aircraft were designated Mirage 2000N-K2. These had both a nuclear and conventional capability, and a full defensive fit.

The K1 aircraft now have a limited conventional attack capability.

Dassault has also developed the Mirage 2000D, which is a development of the Mirage 2000N designed for long-range precision strikes with conventional weapons.

This aircraft is exactly the same as the Mirage 2000N, but introduces support for conventional attack missiles such as the Apache and Scalp missiles, as well as the AASM weapons.

The first aircraft, converted from the Mirage 2000N prototype, flew on the 19th February 1991, and the French Air Force ordered a total of 86 aircraft.

The Mirage 2000N is not licensed for export. The French Air Force has 62 in its inventory.
Like the Mirage 2000N, the Mirage 2000D had variants.

The Mirage 2000D-R1 does not have the full weapons capability of the Mirage 2000D-R2, which features the Apache and Scalp missiles, the ATLIS II laser designation system, and the Samir self-protection fit.

The Mirage 2000N is the nuclear strike variant which was intended to carry the Aerospatiale Air-Sol Moyenne Portee (ASMP) nuclear stand-off missile.

Initial flight tests of two prototypes began on February 3, 1983, and the Mirage 2000N entered operational service in 1988. A total of 75 were built.

The fighter had strengthened wings for low-altitude operations, as well as low-level precision navigation/attack systems, built around the Dassault/Thales Antilope 5 radar, which was designed for the strike role and featured a terrain-avoidance capability.

The ASMP missile is 5.38 meters long with a kerosene-powered ramjet that allows it to cruise at Mach 3 to a maximum range of 100 km carrying a nuclear warhead with a yield of 300 kT.

Upgrades:

The existing kit was enhanced to provide an electronic intelligence (ELINT) capability, allowing the aircraft to record data on adversary emitters for post-flight intelligence analysis.

A SAT Samir "Detecteur de Depart Missile (DDM)" missile-warning system was also added, being attached to the back of the Magic AAM pylons.

Future upgrades include the addition of a Pod Reco NG (Pod de Reconnaissance Nouvelle Generation) to provide digital reconnaissance capabilities, with both day and night imagers, a digital data recorder system, and a datalink to provide real-time relay of imagery to battlefield commanders.

It is being developed by Thales for service introduction in 2006.

Aircraft with the updated countermeasures system and capable of carrying both the ASMP-A missile and the Pod Reco NG will be redesignated "Mirage 2000N-K3".

M. Rocard a suggéré, pour économiser une quinzaine de milliards d'euro/an, la suppression de la force française de dissuasion nucléaire. ( BFMTV ?)

Si l'idée faisait son chemin, les 2000N K1 seraient soit modernisés ( est-ce que cela vaudrait le coût ) soit retirés de l’inventaire.

DDM

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Principe technique

Un équipement de veille infrarouge possède un détecteur de la bande II (3-5 µm) ou III (8-12 µm) capable de voir en champ instantané de 5° à 10°. Pour pouvoir balayer un champ à 360° en gisement, deux solutions sont possibles :

optique et détecteurs tournants,

optique partiellement tournant et détecteur fixe.

Après le détecteur le traitement du signal ( « extraction » ) permet d’identifier et de localiser les pré-alarmes (« plots »).

Puis un second traitement va permettre de suivre les différentes pistes (suite de plots dans le temps).

La technologie IRST ne doit pas être confondue avec le Forward looking infrared (FLIR) qui est un système d’imagerie infrarouge dont le champ est moins important mais la fréquence plus élevée.

Infrarouge et radar[modifier]

La veille infrarouge peut avoir certains avantages par rapport au radar.

En premier lieu, elle ne fait que « regarder » les sources infrarouges, ce qui la rend indétectable (le radar émet des rayonnements).

Elle a de plus une meilleure résolution et permet de reconnaître les cibles.

De son côté, le radar a une portée supérieure et permet de déterminer la vitesse de la cible (effet Doppler).
Pour ces raisons la veille infrarouge et le radar peuvent être utilisés de façon complémentaire.

Les systèmes modernes peuvent analyser les résultats de plusieurs capteurs : IRST, FLIR et radar.