The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French Air Force (Armee de l'Air). The Mirage 2000 evolved into a multirole aircraft with several variants developed, with sales to a number of nations. It was later developed into the Mirage 2000N and 2000D strike variants, the improved Mirage 2000-5 and several export variants. Over 600 aircraft were built and it has been in service with nine nations.

The origins of the Mirage 2000 could be traced back to 1965, when France and Britain agreed to develop the "Anglo-French Variable Geometry" (AFVG) swing-wing aircraft. Two years later France withdrew from the project on grounds of costs, after which Britain would collaborate with West Germany and Italy to ultimately produce the Panavia Tornado. Dassault instead focused on its own variable-geometry aircraft, the Dassault Mirage G experimental prototype. The design was expected to materialize in the Mirage G8, which would serve as the replacement for the popular Mirage III in French Air Force service.

The Mirage 2000 started out as a secondary project tentatively named "Delta 1000" in 1972. Dassault was devoting considerable attention to the Mirage G8A, a fixed-geometry derivative of the Mirage G8 that served as the competitor to the Panavia Tornado. The Mirage G8, which was envisioned as the "Avion de Combat Futur" (ACF / Future Combat Aircraft) of the French Air Force (Armee de l'Air, AdA), did not align with the service's conception of its future aircraft. The AdA wanted a Mach 3 fighter, not an interdictor aircraft incapable of dogfighting that was the Mirage G8. As such, Dassault redesigned the Mirage G8 into the two-engine Super Mirage G8A that would prove to be ambitious and expensive, being two and a half times the price of the Mirage F1 and over-engineered, especially compared to the F-16 that had just won orders from a number of European countries. Consequently, during a meeting of the National Defence Council on December 18th, 1975, the Super Mirage was cancelled.

The ACF was a strike aircraft first and an interceptor second, while the Delta 2000 was exactly the reverse, but the single-engine Delta 2000 was much more affordable. At the same meeting, what was now re-designated as the Mirage 2000 was offered to the AdA and three prototypes were ordered. The AdA in March 1976 would issue a set of official requirements whose parameters matched that of Dassault's performance estimates of the new fighter. The aircraft's primary role was interception with a secondary ground-attack capability; the AdA had a commitment for 200 aircraft. The first aircraft was to be delivered in 1982. This was a return to the first generation Mirages, but with several important innovations that tried to solve their shortcomings.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a French Dassault Mirage 2000D multirole aircraft that was attached to 650 Armee de l'Air then deployed to Mont-de-Marsan Air Base, France. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 5-3/4-inches
Length: 8-1/4-inches

Release Date: October 2022

Historical Account: "Old World Charm" - Mont-de-Marsan Air Base (French: Base aerienne 118 Mont-de-Marsan) (ICAO: LFBM) is a front-line French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) (ALAE) fighter base located approximately 2 km north of Mont-de-Marsan, in the Landes department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. The airport is at an elevation of 203 feet (62 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 09/27 with an asphalt surface measuring 3,603 metres (11,821 ft) in length.

The Air Base is home to two squadrons of Dassault Rafale, the most advanced French fighter aircraft. The base includes Centre d'Essais des Materiels Aeronautiques - CEMA (the French air force military experimentation and trials organization), an air defense radar command reporting center, and an air defense control training site.

The base is named after Colonel Constantin Rozanoff. The airbase was formerly home to France's first operational squadron of nuclear bombers, the Dassault Mirage IVA.