First Dassault Mirage 2000-5F fighters will arrive in Ukraine by end of first quarter of 2025, - Barrot
The first batch of modernised French Dassault Mirage 2000-5F fighters will be delivered to Ukraine by the end of the first quarter of 2025. In total, Ukraine is to receive up to 10 of these combat aircraft.
According to Censor.NET, citing Avions Legendaires, this was announced by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
The planes will be transferred from the French Aerospace Forces and adapted to perform the tasks of the Ukrainian army. This is part of France's key military assistance, which also includes Caesar artillery systems and AMX-10RC armoured vehicles.
"Probably, the first three copies will be delivered by 20 January 2025. Some sources even suggest that they are already present in Ukraine, but so far have only been conducting training flights," the article says.
As part of the modernisation, French experts equipped the aircraft with the ability to launch Scalp-EG and Storm Shadow cruise missiles. The Mirage 2000-5F will become the second ‘Western’ fighter jet in the Ukrainian Air Force after the US F-16.
The Dassault Mirage 2000-5F fighter jet. What is known?
The Mirage 2000-5F is a multi-role single-engine jet fighter developed by Dassault Aviation in the 1970s. It was the main combat aircraft of the French Air Force in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In general, it was adopted by the armies of several countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
The 2000s version was developed primarily for export customers to offer greater capabilities against the backdrop of new fighters, including the F-16. Nevertheless, the French Air Force ignored this modification for a long time, but the Gulf War and the Balkan wars opened the eyes of the French command to the serious lag of the French Air Force compared to the air forces of other countries.
In June 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would provide Kyiv with Mirage 2000-5Fs and train pilots by the end of the year (in two years, Paris has committed to certifying the training of 26 Ukrainians). Some of the pilots and mechanics completed their flight training on the Mirage 2000-5F in late December.
