Ukrainian Air Force reveals details of operations with French Mirage 2000 jets
The Ukrainian Air Force has disclosed details of how Ukrainian pilots operate French Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft.
According to Ukrinform, the Air Force released a video in which a Mirage 2000 pilot and aviation technicians discuss the aircraft's battlefield effectiveness.
"There are not many Mirages in Ukraine's Air Force, so spotting this aircraft at a forward airbase is a real stroke of luck for our film crew – especially while the pilot was carrying out an actual combat mission," the caption to the video notes.
The pilot showed his aircraft at a tactical airfield and shared his impressions of flying it.
Ukrainian pilots and their forward-based teams must constantly change airfields, as the enemy persistently tries to destroy Defense Forces equipment, and combat missions are often carried out under missile and drone attacks.
The pilots trained in France.
"We spent about six months learning how to fly the aircraft and employ its weapons on the dual-control Mirage 2000. Then we transitioned to the single-seat aircraft – the very one I'm flying now," the pilot said.
He noted that the Magic 2 missile equipping the jet has performed extremely well, achieving nearly perfect success rates.
"The effectiveness of intercepting enemy drones and missiles with this aircraft is 98%. Those are impressive numbers," he said.
The pilot stressed the need for the Ukrainian Air Force to continue developing its capabilities and receive more modern aircraft and weapons to counter Russia's aerial assaults.
He also added that the Mirage 2000 lacks longer-range weaponry:
"We need weapons that strike a balance between effectiveness and cost, so we can counter the vast number of enemy aerial threats we face today," the pilot said.
"If I had the opportunity to switch to another aircraft better than the Mirage, I would probably choose the Rafale. It's also French, so retraining would be much faster than on jets from other countries. And Rafale can carry Meteor – a long-range missile. We are ready to do our job at any moment, but what we need is assistance from our partners to supply this weaponry and all other systems they can provide," he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that one of the advantages of Rafale jets was that Ukrainian pilots already flying Mirages would not require additional lengthy training.