France has announced a tentative delivery schedule for the Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine, giving Kyiv a reason to rejoice as it battles rapidly advancing Russian forces in the East.
French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that the country intends to arm Kyiv with French fighter jets in the first half of next year. This is the clearest indication of the French minister’s transfer of the aircraft given to date.
In an interview with French publication Sun Ouest on October 7, Lecornu said, “Mirage 2000s could be flying in Ukraine in the first half of 2025,” without giving a specific date for the delivery of the aircraft that French President Emmanuel Macron promised to the Ukrainian Air Force earlier this year.
The French Mirage 2000-5 is a fourth-generation fighter jet, which essentially means that it belongs to the same class of combat aircraft as the F-16, which is already in service with the Ukrainian Air Force. Kyiv has deployed the F-16 mainly for air defense and combat patrols. It lost at least one F-16 in a crash in late August.
Lecornu added that the French were modifying their aircraft to make them better suited for the conflict in Ukraine.
“The aim is to equip them with air-to-ground combat capabilities and reinforce their electronic warfare system. But most important is the training of pilots and mechanics, which continues in Nancy,” the Minister said. Mirage-2000 was originally designed for air-to-air combat.
The F-16s delivered to Ukraine have also been tweaked to suit its unique requirements. On its debut in Ukraine, the aircraft was seen with a series of specialized pylons, indicating that they were outfitted with certain self-defense electronic warfare measures. However, the US Air Force later revealed that it had reprogrammed the Electronic Warfare suite of the F-16s to bolster its capability.
The French Minister of Armed Forces also mentioned that the delivery schedule of the aircraft to Kyiv would depend on the status of pilot training. This is significant since the F-16 crash in Ukraine has been attributed to an accelerated pilot training program.
The French Armed Forces announced on September 20 that the first group of Ukrainian pilots had successfully finished their Alpha Jet training in France. Typically, pilot training for the Mirage takes around five to six months.
When it receives the Mirage-2000, Ukraine would be in the select group of countries—Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Taiwan — operating the F-16 along with the Mirage-2000. However, the number of Mirage-2000s in Ukrainian inventory would be significantly lower than the 60 F-16s promised to Kyiv by NATO countries.
Some French publications previously predicted that France might only be able to supply half a dozen jets to Ukraine due to its security requirements.
The combat efficacy of the aircraft is also underscored by the fact that a powerful South Asian country like India, which has a large fleet of Su-30MKI, is also contemplating purchasing a second-hand Mirage-2000-5 from Qatar to reinforce its dwindling fighter strength.
Additionally, last year, reports indicated that the Taiwanese Air Force was looking into ways to prolong the operational lifespan of its French Mirage-2000 combat jet fleet to counter an aggressive China.
Notably, Lecornu’s announcement comes at a time when Ukrainian forces are struggling to stop the rapid advance of Russian troops in the eastern Ukrainian region.
According to the latest update from the beleaguered country, Russian troops have entered the outskirts of the Ukraine frontline city of Toretsk. This has unsettled the country’s leadership, as it is believed that securing the town of Toretsk would help Moscow achieve its objective of annexing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
With no end to the war in sight, the arrival of the archaic yet advanced fighters will expand Ukrainian capability on the battlefield. However, like its other partners in NATO, France has not yet approved Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike Russian territory, citing concerns over a potentially unprecedented escalation in conflict with Russia.
Mirage 2000 To Boost Ukrainian Air Force
The Mirage 2000-5 is specifically designed for air-to-air engagements, distinguishing it from its predecessors, the Mirage 2000Cs and the Mirage 2000D attack aircraft, which were primarily focused on air-to-ground operations. The French are modifying the aircraft to expand its role to include air-to-ground combat, a key requirement of the Ukrainian Air Force.
The SCALP-EG cruise missile and the Hammer rocket-assisted precision-guided bomb are two examples of the air-to-ground weaponry that France has already given to Ukraine. These munitions could be integrated with the Mirage to equip the aircraft with air-to-ground attack capability.
According to reports, France is working to integrate additional and more lethal weaponry on the Mirage 2000-5 meant for Kyiv. The Mirage 2000-5s might also be deployed with sophisticated armaments, such as the MICA beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. It has nine exterior hardpoints that can accommodate a variety of air-to-ground and air-to-air armament systems.
The Mirage 2000-5 has a maximum operating ceiling of 60,000 feet and can achieve a speed of more than Mach 2.2, or about 1,700 miles per hour.
The Mirage 2000-5s are equipped with RDY radars, a mechanically scanned pulse-doppler system with look-down/shoot-down capabilities. These radars provide significant enhancements over the older RDI (Radar Doppler à Impulsions, an X-band pulse Doppler radar with a high pulse repetition frequency) and RDM (Radar Doppler Multifunction, a multimode pulse-Doppler radar) radars, including the ability to track multiple targets simultaneously and improved air-to-ground functionalities.
Ukraine would especially benefit from such qualities, as the country is constantly threatened by Russian cruise missiles and kamikaze drones that fly at low altitudes.
The Mirage 2000-5 would expand Ukraine’s mission set. Since the Ukrainian Air Force has already secured the delivery of F-16s, it would be able to deploy the Mirage 2000-5s for a different mission set than the F-16 if it so desires.
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