Mirage gets French uplift
IAF has three squadrons of the fighter aircraft
India on Friday signed a Rs 10,900 crore (approximately $ 2.4 billion) agreement with two French arms majors Thales and Dassault Aviation for upgrading 51 Mirage-2000 fighters of the Indian Air Force.
Incidentally, the contract was inked on the same day outgoing Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief P V Naik was given a warm send-off by Union Defence Minister A K Antony.
Naik would hand over the reins of IAF to NAK Browne, who would take over as the new chief on Monday.
Indian Air Force currently has three squadrons of Mirage-2000, based in Gwalior. The first fighter was bought in 1982 and the entire fleet was inducted in the IAF by 1986.
The 3,000 page contract – approved by the Cabinet committee on Security on July 13 – would be executed in two phases.
In the first phase, two aircraft will be upgraded in France and delivered to the IAF 44 months after signing the contract, which would be around second quarter of 2015.
Two more would be upgraded by Dassault and Thales at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore and delivered to the IAF approximately 50 months after the contract was signed.
Technical assistance
The remaining 47 would be upgraded at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited up to full operational configuration with technical assistance from the French companies, said the companies in an official statement.
The upgrades include night vision goggle compatible glass cockpit, advanced navigational systems, identify friend or foe system, multi-mode multi-layered radar, fully integrated electronic warfare suite and beyond visual range (BVR) missiles.
Key platforms
The upgraded Mirage-2000 along with Sukhoi-30 MKI will be the two key platforms for the IAF in the intervening period before the force completely shifts to the medium multi-role aircraft (MMRCA), indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA) and Indo-Russian fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA).
