MIRAGE 2OOO Around the World
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F RANCE C ONSEIL 2 ● 2003 MIRAGE 2OOO ENGAGE! around theworld DASSAULT AVIATIONDASSAULT SNECMAMOTEURS THALES ◆ ◆ Squadron chat ENGAGE! 2 ● 2003 25 years ago HAF MIRAGE 2000 EG 210, Traditions Twenty five years ago, on March 10th, a phoenix back into the air Dassault Aviation 1978, the Mirage 2000-01 took to the In 1997, HAF Mirage 2000 EG 210 maintains the tradition air for its maiden flight, flown by overran the runway at Skiros Air Base of granting distinctions Dassault Aviation Test Pilot Jean Coureau. and ditched into the sea. The Hellenic to pilots who The Mirage 2000 was subsequently Air Force (HAF), Hellenic Aerospace have logged introduced to service into the French Industry (HAI) and Dassault Aviation 1,000, 2,000 Summary Air Force in 1984, and then into many have successfully rebuilt it. It is now and 3,000 Editorial other Air Forces (India, Egypt, Peru, flying again and is back to service into flight UAE, Greece, Taiwan and Qatar). Over hours on the the HAF. “Vendée” MIRAGE 2000s 500 Mirage 2000 are in operation Mirage 2000. The first issue of this publication was only throughout the world, and have logged Dedicated patches, 2 in the Hellenic sky over 1 000 000 flight hours. diplomas and trophies are a four-pages newsletter devoted to the awarded during a formal Flight safety corner salvaging of HAF Mirage 2000 EG 210, but ceremony to these pilots at the 5 request of the Staff of their Air Forces. it met with unexpected success from Contact: D. Coulier (Dassault Aviation RDY2: multi role, Mirage 2000 users. Military Customer Support Division) multi function radar 6 As a result, we elected to build on this success and establish this newsletter as a MIRAGE 2000 HAF MIRAGE 2000-5 BGM user conference 8 flies! twice-a-year publication, with the name MIRAGE 2000 Book A Mirage 2000 “ENGAGE!”. user conference Pierre Argouse and Jean-Pierre will be organised HAF superb painting Taillandier cover the history of the “ENGAGE!” is slated to be the link by Dassault scheme... Mirage 2000 in their 1998 released 9 Aviation in 2004. between Mirage 2000 users all over the book simply called “Mirage 2000”. UAE engineers at The week-long world with articles on exercises, exchanges, The book, with lots of superb aircraft event will provide M53-P2 engine Rochefort Air Base pictures by famous aerial photographers, 10 Squadrons traditions, as well as notes operators and More than 200 UAE engineers started is published by Jean-Pierre Taillandier. industry about flight safety and technical papers their ab initio training in January 2002 M53-P3 a new engine specialists with in France, this training period is under the skin from the Industry. an opportunity 11 planned to last until 2005. to exchange This project is a spin off from the information on Enjoy! partnership between the French Air Force, 12 Letters maintenance and AIRCO and Dassault Aviation, and will operations issues, and pilot topics as well. lead to the establishment of the French Defense Aeronautical Institute. Restriction notice: This publication is intended for information only. Its contents neither replace nor revise any material in official manuals or publications. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - translating in other language - without prior written permission of Dassault-Aviation. MIRAGE 2OOO 3000 hours on About our cover: MIRAGE 2000 MIRAGE 2000-5 BGM 505 takes to the air with its HAF livery. THE BEST OF French Air Force WSO Capt Sauvain airpowerment was granted the 3,000 hours patch, About our posters: Mirage 2000-9s flying to UAE. diploma and trophy after flying more French and Greek Mirage 2000s in the Hellenic sky. than 3,000 hours on Mirage 2000 N and D, between 1984 and 2003. The ceremony took place at EC 3/3 “Ardennes” Photo credits Photos by Asp Chauveau (EC 1/5 “Vendée”), A. Paringaux, located at Nancy Air Force Base. F. Robineau, French Air Force, Thales, Snecma Moteurs and Dassault Aviation. 1 “Vendée” MIRAGE 2000s in the Hellenic sky The contenders: The Hellenic Air Force 331 was created in 1988 and has been flying on Mirage 2000 since then. This squadron is mainly dedicated to Air to Surface missions with anti-ship Exocet AM 39 missiles. Squadrons exchange between: Hellenic Air Force 331 The French Air Force EC 1/5 “Vendée” and was created in 1950 and has been flying on Mirage 2000 since 1988. This squadron is mainly French Air Force EC 1/5 “Vendée” dedicated to Air defence In the frame of the bilateral defence agreement between Greece missions on RDI Mirage 2000 with Super 530 D and Magic II missiles. and France, exchanges between squadrons are planned twice a year, alternately in France and in Greece. The latest exchange between Hellenic Air Force 331 and French Air Force EC 1/5 “Vendée” took place at Tanagra Hellenic Air Force Base, during ten days. The ring: This exchange took place at Tanagra HAF Base between September 29th and October 10th. The countries flew mixed formations with various Air to Air set ups. For this meeting the EC 1/5 “Vendée” flew to Tanagra with 4 Mirage 2000 RDI single seaters, carrying one 1300 l fuselage tank, two 2000 l wing tanks and Magic II training missiles. The French detachment was supported by a C160 “Transall” and a Casa 235, with 30 engineers and 8 Mirage 2000 pilots, under Lieutenant Colonel Madrange. 2 ENGAGE! 3 “Vendée” MIRAGE 2000s in the Hellenic sky Debriefing... Flight safety corner The Mirage 2000 availability was excellent, all along the exercise with a 98% rate. No mission was cancelled due to a mechanical failure. The Mirage 2000 demonstrated its benefits in the Greek combat zones, allowing pilots to fly low altitude manoeuvres where the aircraft is particularly efficient. The increased power of the M53-P2 made combat manoeuvres easier for Hellenic pilots. The Hellenic 331 pilots are accomplished air to surface Mission: Fighting! specialists. They were French pilots began their stay by excellent in familiarisation missions, in order to So, the Mirage 2000 newsletter is open designed that way, what entailed such BFM memorise alternate airfields (with their wide, for all you Mirage 2000 drivers (and technical option, all and each one of you, missions and VFR and IFR procedures) and some key flew their all those longing to be part of the gang!). on the flight line, really and actually have landscape elements such as specific Mirage 2000s Well, that’s good news. Among articles the true operational experience of the Hellenic islands and coastline. efficiently. They specially demonstrated about the aircraft and your Squadrons aircraft. As such, it is paramount to have The air to air missions featured: strong capacities for learning and activity and milestones, I am thinking your feed back, your point of view. Many ■ Basic Fighter Manoeuvring in one enhancing air to air BVR about a specific “corner” in which we can times already, we have corrected or versus one set ups, techniques. They are now impatient discuss Flight safety topics. What I mean is introduced new information or procedure ■ Two versus two Full up* to receive their brand new a “free discussion” space: real stories and from remarks coming from you: whenever and Heaters* set ups, Mirage 2000-5 Mk2s... lessons learned, experiences, weird such input is technically correct and/or ■ Four versus two Heaters* versus For the French 1/5 pilots it was circumstances or events during which operationally a good idea, we just spread Full up* set ups. really a very instructive exchange situation assessment proved difficult or it to the entire Mirage 2000 fleet. This (*Heaters means using IR combat missiles only, with a very good atmosphere, and tricky, you know, all these flight stories… synergy is good, we just want to keep it Full-up means using war time configuration interesting missions. The global It could be also a spot to explain what is going on, and we count on you for that. without any limitation.) feeling with Hellenic pilots was “behind” a procedure, or what’s “between As the saying goes, “Flight Safety is a state French Mirage 2000s carried one excellent. “The operation shows 1300 l fuselage tank and training the depth of our friendship and its lines”, why it has been written this way, of mind”. Among this specific “state of Magic II missiles. 16 sorties were our desire to exchange again what is to be understood to a larger extend, mind”, let’s add the will of sharing the achieved on a daily basis by both Cpt Turowski our operational experience in the what the “good old common sense” dictates. tremendous amount of experience that you Air Forces, with an average flight time (EC 1/5 “Vendée”) near future…”. Now, read me loud and clear, it will not have accumulated during now more than a of 1 hour per sortie. All operational be a place to modify, substitute current million flight hours on the ‘2000, stories procedures were in English. procedures or to introduce new ones, it from crew chiefs pre-flight, “down in the will only be a place to make procedures weeds” with the Muds, up in “Contrails more understandable, or to give information county” with the Air Defense guys, to engine around the procedure. shut down and debrief. Some questions can, will, and must come That’s a lot of stories. from you, this should be an exchange zone, I’m waiting to hear them.