Mirage 2000 is exercised. – Christopher Simon
After the tanks and other armored vehicles, Ukraine is now hoping its allies will want to equip it with fighter jets, aircraft it has none of. Negotiations for the Mirage 2000 have started between Kyiv and Paris, but France is reluctant to let go of its fighters.
So far, Ukrainian hopes have focused mainly on strengthening western heavy tanks, starting with the German Leopard-2. Now that Ukraine has received guarantees that these will be met, it is moving to another page of its order book.
Kyiv is now demanding missiles and, above all, airplanes. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made this clear in his speech on Wednesday. “We also have to allow the delivery of long-range missiles to Ukraine, that’s important. We also have to (…) allow the dispatch of combat aircraft.”
ongoing discussions
His Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov confirmed this in an interview published in Le Figaro on Thursday, stressing with a smile his intention to continue “harassing” his European counterparts in order to enrich his country’s arsenal.
According to information from BFMTV this Friday, when the export of Rafale to Ukraine seems to be ruled out from the beginning, the exchange between Kyiv and Paris has started well for a possible French delivery of Mirage 2000, a fighter aircraft built by Dassault a senior officer close to these exchanges. But France is currently resisting the idea of joining Ukraine’s bid.
“Month of the Airplane”
Our foreign affairs columnist Patrick Sauce, who could confirm the reality of these negotiations, first predicted:
“The month of February is coming, it will be the month of the airplane. The phone will ring in almost every law firm.”
With a view to the French case, he automatically weighted: “These discussions are currently only going in one direction.” In other words, “a lot of questions arise, but for now the answer is negative,” the journalist later explained.
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urgent problems
“Yes, Ukrainians are really thinking about asking France for planes. They are even more thinking about asking France to train Ukrainian pilots.” However, the state summit rejects a triple curtain between Ukraine’s procurement of aircraft and their delivery: the possibility of such a gift or loan, its sustainability for France, the administration.
“Will it be of any use to the Ukrainians? That is, planes that could bomb Russian areas, but Russian areas protected by very sophisticated missile and anti-aircraft systems,” Patrick Sauce asks.
To be honest, both sides balked at these devices. So much so that when Ukrainians lack the resources to soar to the sky, Russians also avoid crossing it.
There is Mirage 2000-D and Mirage 2000-5
Patrick Sauce then developed the second criterion: “Will it then reduce the French aircraft fleet? We know that we will switch to Rafale, but there is a small delta, particularly between 2023 and 2024, where we will remove our Mirage 2000s, but where we will not have the corresponding number of Rafales yet, it would be good to have some to have in stock”.
Indeed, judging by the figures provided by the Ministry of the Armed Forces BFMTV, the Mirage 2000 train available to France is not surprising. On the one hand, there are only 113 devices. On the other hand, not all have the same abilities… and don’t show the same form.
“There are two types: Mirage 2000-D and -5,” introduced General Jérôme Pellistrandi, BFMTV’s defense advisor. The official specified that of these 113 Mirage 2000-D or Mirage 2000-5, 55 had to be dismantled as part of the “renovation”.
More precisely, the Mirage 2000-D, which we spoil precisely because they still have “considerable potential”. And the Mirage 2000-5? “The Mirage 2000-5 are more of a discontinued model,” warned the general.
maintenance and future
In addition to these difficulties, Patrick Sauce specifies that the staff has one last criterion in mind, the question of “maintenance and everything to do with the aircraft”, and is particularly finicky:
“That is, the pilot that we will train, but also the system that means that in 2023 an aircraft that will face MIG aircraft or Sukoi, which in Russia are very advanced for some, will be able will evolve in each security bubble. “And they’re even harder to get than tanks,” emphasized the journalist.
“We don’t transfer an aircraft like an armored vehicle,” added General Jérôme Pellistrandi. And yet, with armored vehicles, the matter may not be so obvious. The lack of maintenance guarantees is already one of the sticking points for the possible shipment of Leclerc heavy tanks, while France has agreed to donate AMX-10RC, “fire reconnaissance” tanks, much lighter.
However, BFMTV’s defense adviser noted that if talks about the supply of combat aircraft did not succeed today, they would not necessarily have died out: “The question of supplying aircraft may arise in the coming months and years, because Ukraine must have the capabilities to defend itself against the Russia of tomorrow”.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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