The agreement for Ukraine to receive some of the Mirage 2000D ground attack fighters from the French Air and Space Force is moving forward.
According to the French site Intelligence Online, a delegation of Ukrainian Air Force Headquarters commanders traveled to France to finalize the details of the future agreement under which they will receive an as yet undetermined number of Mirage 2000 fighters. In particular, Kiev is interested in the specialized ground attack version, the Mirage 2000D.
As a result of the agreements reached last year between Volodimir Zelenskiy and Emmanuel Macron, France has already begun training (unofficially) a contingent of Ukrainian pilots on the Mirage weapon system for several months at four bases: Nancy-Oche, Mont-de-Morsan, Véliz and Romorantin-Lentenay.
Specialized in precision strike
The Mirage 2000D are optimized for low-altitude flight and ground attack/ground support and can carry ASTAC electronic reconnaissance pods, advanced IR/CCTV/laser targeting pods and launch SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow cruise missiles and laser-guided bombs.
France has more than 50 of these aircraft, which are receiving a mid-life modernization to improve their air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities, as well as a complementary, tactile, centralized attack and navigation system that will facilitate man-machine dialogue.
Some of the French Mirage 2000D were upgraded with VHF-FM radios and the ROVER video transmission system, which together with the Link 16 data link system, allow secure sharing of information gathered by the aircraft’s pods over the theater of operations with command centers, or receiving information from friendly forces on the ground.
These last features must be the most interesting for the Ukrainian Air Force, since not only will they be able to expand the number of platforms that can launch Storm Shadow/Scalp EG cruise missiles (so far used by the Su-24), but thanks to their Link 16, they will be able to receive real time information from the myriad of intelligence resources deployed by NATO to help Kiev, and will be compatible with future F-16 fighters they will receive from countries such as Denmark or the Netherlands.
