Air International 2006-11
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P.Jackson - Dassault Mirage III, 5 and 50 /Aircraft profile/
Dassault Mirage IIIC of Escadron de Chasse 3/10, French Air Force, based at Djibouti in sand and brown desert camouflage. It carries the musketeer insignia of ERC 561 on the tail.
Dassault Mirage IIIC 130 of 117 Squadron, Israeli Defence Force/Air Force, between 1973 and 1979, equipped with the Atar 9B engine and Tarmil reconnaissance camera nose. Six kill-markings appear on the nose.
Dassault Mirage IIIE of 4e Escadre de Chasse, French Air Force. EC4 was the sole unit assigned the nuclear strike role using the AN52 nuclear weapon. The squadron made the first live drop of an AN52 on Mururoa Atoll in 1973.
Dassault Mirage IIIRS of Fliegerstaffel W, Swiss Air Force. R-2118 was the last of 18 of these reconnaissance Mirages supplied to Switzerland. They were later upgraded with radar warning receivers and fixed canard foreplanes.
In Brazil's local designation system, the Mirage IIIEBR became the F-103E. As first delivered, in 1972, the aircraft wore a natural metal colour scheme not dissimilar to France's
IAI Dagger, of the Fuerza Aerea Argentina. Israel supplied 39 IAI Neshers (renamed the Dagger in FAA service) during the 1970s. Those which survived the Falklands/Malvinas war in 1982 were brought up to an avionics standard
Dassault Mirage 5PA3 of the Pakistan Air Force, shown here armed with two Sidewinders and an Exocet AM 39 missile. Exocet-armed aircraft more commonly carried the two larger 1,700 lit drop tanks for extended operations rather than the 600 lit ones illustrated here
Belgium flew Mirage 5s for some 23 years (from 1970 to 1993) in roles which included fighter-bomber, training and reconnaissance. This is a Mirage 5BR of 42 Squadron, equipped with Vinten reconnaissance cameras in the nose
Egypt’s first Mirages were ordered on its behalf by Saudi Arabia and flew in Royal Saudi Air Force markings while training pilots in France. Marked 'Mirage 5SDE', aircraft of this batch were far from the simple day fighters implied by their designation, the all-weather Cyrano radar and Doppler navigation equipment being incapable of disguise.