Dassault Mirage 2000

Mirage 2000D

Delays in the Dassault Rafale fourth-generation fighter program led to a development program for an updated Mirage 2000N dedicated to conventional attack, originally designated Mirage 2000N cousin.

It was to complement SEPECAT Jaguar daylight strike fighters by providing a night/bad weather attack capability.

Formal development began in 1988. The designation was changed to Mirage 2000D in 1990, with the "D" standing for "Diversifie/Multirole". Initial flight of the Mirage 2000D prototype, a modified Mirage 2000N prototype, was on 19 February 1991.

That led to first flight of a production aircraft 31 March 1993 and introduction to service in April 1995. 86 Mirage 2000Ds were built in all to last delivery in 2001.

The Mirage 2000D featured:

An NVG-compatible cockpit, with improved "hands on throttle and stick (HOTAS)" controls and a partial "glass cockpit" arrangement.

The pilot obtained a second display, and the back-seater received two more for a total of three in the rear.

A modernized ULISS 52P navigation system with Global Positioning System (GPS) capability,

An improved Antilope 50 terrain-following system.

An updated "ICMS 2" countermeasures system, with SERVAL RWR, Chameleon jammer, and Spirale dispensers.

Full-specification Mirage 2000D-R1 aircraft could carry stores such as:

All major dumb munitions, such as iron bombs, Belouga cluster bombs, Durandal runway breaker bombs, BAP 100 and BAP 120 clusters, Matra 68 millimeter rocket pods, and cannon pods.

Laser-guided weapons such as the AS-30L ASM or French and US LGBs, with the munitions directed by an ATLIS II or improved optical-infrared PDLCT and high-resolution PDLCTS targeting pods, attached to a pylon under the right air intake.


The navigator/WSO in the back seat handled laser targeting while the pilot in the front flew the aircraft.

Carriage of the next-generation Damocles pod is now under consideration.

The Armat antiradar missile, though this is rarely carried
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The Mirage 2000D remains in service, with various improvements such as the MICA IR.

A general upgrade designated Mirage 2000D-R2 machine was delivered from 2001.

A second upgrade program was begun in 2009, with better support for the strike role and improvement of air-to-air capabilities.

This provided a multirole capability that compensated for the eventual retirement of the Mirage 2000Cs.

Operation Deny Flight and Deliberate Force

French Mirage 2000s were prominent participants in UN and NATO air operations over the former Yugoslavia.

On 30 August 1995 one Mirage 2000D was shot down over Bosnia by a MANPADS heat-seeking 9K38 Igla missile fired by air defence units of Army of Republika Srpska during operation Deliberate Force, prompting efforts to obtain improved defensive systems.

Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF

AdA Mirage 2000Ds served in the intervention in Afghanistan in 2001-2002, operating in close conjunction with international forces and performing precision attacks with LGBs.

The French Air Force deployed the Mirage 2000D to Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan from 2002 to 2004 to support coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Then from 2004 to 2007, they stayed at Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

In summer 2007, after the Rafale fighters have been removed from the theater of operations, 3 French Mirage 2000s were deployed to Afghanistan in support of NATO troops.

To shorten the response time to support NATO ISAF troops in southern Afghanistan, the aircraft moved to Kandahar International Airport. Three Rafale F2 and three Mirage 2000Ds operate from Kandahar in 2008.

On 24 May 2011, a French Air Force Mirage 2000D crashed 100 kilometers west of Farah. Both crew members successfully ejected and were recovered.