FRANCE CONSEIL

ENGAGE!
MIRAGE 2OOO around the world

2 2003

D A S S A U LT AV I AT I O N

SNECMA MOTEURS THALES

Squadron chat
25 years ago
Twenty five years ago, on March 10th, 1978, the Mirage 2000-01 took to the air for its maiden flight, flown by Dassault Aviation Test Pilot Jean Coureau. The Mirage 2000 was subsequently introduced to service into the French Air Force in 1984, and then into many other Air Forces (India, Egypt, Peru, UAE, Greece, Taiwan and Qatar). Over 500 Mirage 2000 are in operation throughout the world, and have logged over 1 000 000 flight hours.

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HAF MIRAGE 2000 EG 210, a phoenix back into the air

In 1997, HAF Mirage 2000 EG 210 overran the runway at Skiros Air Base and ditched into the sea. The Hellenic Air Force (HAF), Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) and Dassault Aviation have successfully rebuilt it. It is now flying again and is back to service into the HAF.

Traditions
Dassault Aviation maintains the tradition of granting distinctions to pilots who have logged 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 flight hours on the Mirage 2000. Dedicated patches, diplomas and trophies are awarded during a formal ceremony to these pilots at the request of the Staff of their Air Forces. Contact: D. Coulier (Dassault Aviation
Military Customer Support Division)

Summary
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Vende MIRAGE 2000s in the Hellenic sky Flight safety corner RDY2: multi role, multi function radar HAF MIRAGE 2000-5 BGM flies! HAF superb painting scheme... M53-P2 engine M53-P3 a new engine under the skin Letters

Editorial
The first issue of this publication was only a four-pages newsletter devoted to the salvaging of HAF Mirage 2000 EG 210, but it met with unexpected success from Mirage 2000 users. As a result, we elected to build on this success and establish this newsletter as a twice-a-year publication, with the name ENGAGE!. ENGAGE! is slated to be the link between Mirage 2000 users all over the world with articles on exercises, exchanges, Squadrons traditions, as well as notes about flight safety and technical papers from the Industry. Enjoy!

MIRAGE 2000 user conference MIRAGE 2000 Book

Pierre Argouse and Jean-Pierre Taillandier cover the history of the Mirage 2000 in their 1998 released book simply called Mirage 2000. The book, with lots of superb aircraft pictures by famous aerial photographers, is published by Jean-Pierre Taillandier. A Mirage 2000 user conference will be organised by Dassault Aviation in 2004. The week-long event will provide operators and industry specialists with an opportunity to exchange information on maintenance and operations issues, and pilot topics as well.

UAE engineers at Rochefort Air Base

More than 200 UAE engineers started their ab initio training in January 2002 in France, this training period is planned to last until 2005. This project is a spin off from the partnership between the French Air Force, AIRCO and Dassault Aviation, and will 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.

3000 hours on MIRAGE 2000

French Air Force WSO Capt Sauvain was granted the 3,000 hours patch, diploma and trophy after flying more than 3,000 hours on Mirage 2000 N and D, between 1984 and 2003. The ceremony took place at EC 3/3 Ardennes located at Nancy Air Force Base.

About our cover:

MIRAGE 2000-5 BGM 505 takes to the air with its HAF livery.

MIRAGE 2OOO

THE BEST OF

About our posters:

Mirage 2000-9s flying to UAE. French and Greek Mirage 2000s in the Hellenic sky.

airpowerment

Photo credits
Photos by Asp Chauveau (EC 1/5 Vende), A. Paringaux, F. Robineau, French Air Force, Thales, Snecma Moteurs and Dassault Aviation.

The contenders:

Vende MIRAGE 2000s in the Hellenic sky

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.

The French Air Force EC 1/5 Vende

was created in 1950 and has been flying on Mirage 2000 since 1988. This squadron is mainly dedicated to Air defence missions on RDI Mirage 2000 with Super 530 D and Magic II missiles.

Squadrons exchange between: Hellenic Air Force 331 and French Air Force EC 1/5 Vende
In the frame of the bilateral defence agreement between Greece 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 Vende 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 Vende 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.
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Vende MIRAGE 2000s in the Hellenic sky

Debriefing...
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 specialists. They were excellent in BFM missions and flew their Mirage 2000s efficiently. They specially demonstrated strong capacities for learning and enhancing air to air BVR techniques. They are now impatient to receive their brand new Mirage 2000-5 Mk2s... For the French 1/5 pilots it was really a very instructive exchange with a very good atmosphere, and interesting missions. The global feeling with Hellenic pilots was excellent. The operation shows the depth of our friendship and our desire to exchange again our operational experience in the near future.

Flight safety corner

Mission: Fighting!
French pilots began their stay by familiarisation missions, in order to memorise alternate airfields (with their VFR and IFR procedures) and some key landscape elements such as specific Hellenic islands and coastline. The air to air missions featured: Basic Fighter Manoeuvring in one versus one set ups, Two versus two Full up* and Heaters* set ups, Four versus two Heaters* versus Full up* set ups.
(*Heaters means using IR combat missiles only, Full-up means using war time configuration without any limitation.)

French Mirage 2000s carried one 1300 l fuselage tank and training Magic II missiles. 16 sorties were achieved on a daily basis by both Air Forces, with an average flight time of 1 hour per sortie. All operational procedures were in English.

Cpt Turowski (EC 1/5 Vende)

So, the Mirage 2000 newsletter is open wide, for all you Mirage 2000 drivers (and all those longing to be part of the gang!). Well, thats good news. Among articles about the aircraft and your Squadrons activity and milestones, I am thinking about a specific corner in which we can discuss Flight safety topics. What I mean is a free discussion space: real stories and lessons learned, experiences, weird circumstances or events during which situation assessment proved difficult or tricky, you know, all these flight stories It could be also a spot to explain what is behind a procedure, or whats between its lines, why it has been written this way, what is to be understood to a larger extend, what the good old common sense dictates. Now, read me loud and clear, it will not be a place to modify, substitute current procedures or to introduce new ones, it will only be a place to make procedures more understandable, or to give information around the procedure. Some questions can, will, and must come from you, this should be an exchange zone, Q and As for the benefit of everybody. Remember that if we can explain why the aircraft and/or such system has been

designed that way, what entailed such technical option, all and each one of you, on the flight line, really and actually have the true operational experience of the aircraft. As such, it is paramount to have your feed back, your point of view. Many times already, we have corrected or introduced new information or procedure from remarks coming from you: whenever such input is technically correct and/or operationally a good idea, we just spread it to the entire Mirage 2000 fleet. This synergy is good, we just want to keep it going on, and we count on you for that. As the saying goes, Flight Safety is a state of mind. Among this specific state of mind, lets add the will of sharing the tremendous amount of experience that you have accumulated during now more than a million flight hours on the 2000, stories from crew chiefs pre-flight, down in the weeds with the Muds, up in Contrails county with the Air Defense guys, to engine shut down and debrief. Thats a lot of stories. Im waiting to hear them. Happy landings to you all.
G. Dailloux
(Dassault Aviation Flight Safety V.P.)

ENGAGE!

RDY2 multi role, multi function radar

The RDY-2 is a last generation pulse Doppler multi-mode radar and is the primordial equipment for the Mirage 2000-5 MK2. The RDY-2 is a technological and technical evolution of the first generation RDY with improved performance and additional capabilities providing significant increase in Air-to-Air, Air-to-ground and Air-to-Sea functions. RDY-2 contributes effectively to all the missions performed by the Mirage 2000 MK2. For each Aircraft mission RDY-2 has suitable functions. In Air dominance and Air defence missions, it provides long range look-up and lookdown detection and tracking of multiple targets for beyond visual range interception. For close range engagement it provides quick acquisition of highly manoeuvring target. It can operate in conjunction with RF missiles, IR missiles and guns. In Navigation, high resolution mapping allows accurate navigation by updating Aircraft position and ground targets identification and marking. In Air to surface missions, it detects and tracks static or moving targets and provides accurate weapon target designation. It can operate in conjunction with guns, conventional or guided weapons. Due to high automation and HOTAS controls, RDY-2 is suitable for single seat Aircraft operation.

Air-to-Ground function:
The Ground Mapping (GM mode), using Real Beam Ground Mapping technique displays a radar map of a large ground zone. It is used for navigation aid or for pre-designation of ground area to be displayed in expand mode. The expand mode, using Doppler Beam Sharpening technique provides a high resolution and expanded display of an area around ground point designated by the pilot. Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) allows the detection and tracking of ground moving targets, providing tactical situation display and firing priority elaboration (pilots designation of targets to be engaged).

Cutting-edge modularity
It is highly modular comprising around 60 Shop Replaceable Units (SRUs) and 7 Line Replaceable Units (Lrus).

Air-to-Sea function:
A dedicated Air to Sea mode allows the detection and tracking of sea targets within the search envelope defined by the pilot with tactical situation display and firing priority elaboration.

They are:
The Structure located in the nose cone and supporting the Forward Assembly, the Transmitter, the Exciter-Receiver and the Data-Processing. Counter Mapping mode enables the display The Programmable Signal Processing (PSP) located in the bay. The radome.
Power Supply SRU

of hazardous ground echoes, situated above a clearance plane adjusted by the pilot. It provides flying aid for low level navigation and blind penetration over hilly terrain.

State of the art technology:

Employing the most recent technologies in radar systems, RDY-2 capitalises on the experience and on the knowledge of Thales Airborne Systems. To meet all the requirement and to insure all the assigned missions the most recent technologies and components are used.
Antenna and servomechanisms have been

Air-to-Air function:
For long range engagement, Velocity Search and Range While Search modes are available:
Velocity search (V.S.) mode enables very

In combat situations at medium or short

range, RDY-2 assists the pilot through dedicated quick acquisition modes: Boresight aiming Vertical search - HUD search, Slaving modes, Sectorial scan. To reduce the pilot work load, and to enhance detection and tracking capabilities, high automation allows automatic adaptive scanning and wave form management.

long-range detection of incoming air targets in look up and look down conditions within a pilots selected search domain.
Range While Search (RWS) mode enables

IF SRU

redesigned.
A new Programmable Signal Processing has been developed. Air to Ground Ranging performs a

long range detection and automatic tracks opening within a search domain defined and controlled by the pilot (TWS-MAN mode). In TWS-AUTO mode, automatic tracking with clear Tactical Situation display and secured firing priority assessment is provided. Raid Assessment with zoom allows formation assessment and enhanced tactical situation display and analysis.
In close range engagement Single Target Tracking (STT) is used for dynamic tracking of highly manoeuvring target.

continuous computation of the distance between the Aircraft and the ground along a line of sight controlled by the WDNS. This is used for navigation updating and air to ground armament delivery.

The last generation of frequencies synthesis techniques allows high spectrum purity. Low noise / high dynamic receiver and
Hyper Frequency SRU

high speed analogical to digital conversion are used.

This modular architecture enables easy and quick maintenance.

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HAF MIRAGE 2000-5 BGM FLIES!

HAF SUPERB PAINTING SCHEME...

On 24 June 2003, Captain Leonidas KARANATSIS from the HAF was the first Hellenic pilot to fly the Mirage 2000-5 BGM (S/N 505). The S/N 505 is a brand new Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 used as development aircraft for the Hellenic Air Force Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 contract. This 1.5 flight hour was successfully performed in the frame of the In-Flight Evaluation (IFE), by the HAF, of their Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 procurement program. This flight allowed the evaluation of the Air-to-Ground functions. Captain Leonidas KARANATSIS, who is a Mirage 2000 EGM/BGM fighter pilot in the HAF, is a member of the In-Flight Evaluation Project Group (IFE-PG) who is in charge of performing the evaluation prior to the delivery of the Mirage 2000-5s to the HAF.

Captain Leonidas KARANATSIS, 35, has logged nearly 1,000 F/H on Mirage 2000E and is currently assigned at Tanagra (Greece) AFB, attached to Air Operations Headquarter.

The Mirage 2000-5 BGM 505 flew out of the Bordeaux Merignac plant of Dassault Aviation on August 20th , 2003 in its new HAF painting scheme. It is slated to fly at the Istres Flight Test Center of Dassault Aviation as a development aircraft assigned to the Mirage 2000-5 EGM/BGM program.

ENGAGE!

M53-P2

engine

M53-P3

a new engine under the skin

M53 family totals over one million flight-hours

The M53 engine powers all versions of the Mirage 2000 fighter, and is deployed on four continents. Combining performance and reliability, it offers excellent controllability and a very broad flight envelope, without throttle restrictions from very low speed all the way to Mach 2.2. In short, it is perfectly suited to all modern combat aircraft missions. The latest version features a new autothrottle, enabling automatic engine control to maintain the airspeed chosen by the pilot. To date, M53 engines have logged over one million hours in flight. At the end of 2003, nearly 650 of these engines will be in service worldwide.

Engine characteristics
Single-shaft turbofan 3-stage low-pressure compressor 5-stage high-pressure compressor Annular combustor Cooled two-stage turbine Annular afterburner Multi-flap convergent

Performance specifications
Thrust with afterburner: 95 kN

(21,400 lb)
Thrust without afterburner: 64 kN

(14,500 lb)
Specific fuel consumption with afterburner:

Lower cost of ownership, greater operability, state-of-the-art control technologies The Snecma Moteurs M53-P2 is being transformed into the enhanced performance M53-P3 version. The M53 engine was originally developed to power Dassault Aviations Mirage fighters. In 1986, it underwent a first major evolution, from the M53-5 to the current M53-P2 version. Today, the M53-P2 powers over 500 Mirage 2000 fighters around the world, and has logged over one million hours in flight. But its career is far from over: recent market studies show that the engine will be powering front-line fighters for many years to come.

2.1 kg/daN.h
Specific fuel consumption without afterburner:

Mirage 2000s deployed by France (about half of the total fleet) will remain in service until at least 2025, while those deployed by export customers - Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Greece, India, Peru, Qatar and Taiwan - could be in operation until 2030 or even 2035. Snecma Moteurs asked Mirage 2000 operators what changes they wanted to see in the M53-P2. Based on their answers, Snecma Moteurs focused on two areas: lowering the overall cost of ownership, and a technical upgrade to incorporate state-ofthe-art technologies on the control system and the turbines. The enhanced engine project was dubbed the M53-P3. Design engineers identified three technical objectives: faster acceleration, improved specific fuel consumption (SFC) and simplified backup systems. Reducing the cost of ownership depends on increasing the lifespan of hot parts, and simplifying maintainability, especially for the control system.

To meet these goals, the new engine integrates the latest technologies, for instance a 100% full authority digital engine control (FADEC); the control system is now all-digital and fully redundant. These technologies are derived from those employed on other Snecma Moteurs engines, most notably the M88 and the CFM56. In addition to the new control system and new turbine, the M53-P3 will also come in an optional higher-thrust version. For the moment, this mid-life upgrade is primarily targeting the retrofit market. Customers deploying Mirage 2000 fleets will be able to retrofit their engines with the new control system and turbine. Subsequently, all of these modifications will be applied to original equipment M53-P3 engines.

variable-geometry nozzle Full authority digital control Modular, on-condition maintenance (12 engine modules) Length: 5,070 mm Inlet diameter: 796 mm Weight: 1,515 kg

0.9 kg/daN.h Airflow: 94 kg/sec. Turbine entry temperature (TET): 1,600 K (1,327C) Compression ratio: 9.8 Bypass ratio: 0.36

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Letters

This page will be dedicated to your letters and our answers concerning all subjects around ENGAGE!. We would like: to have your feed back about this new publication, to collect all the remarks you could point out about the articles, to answer your questions when you need more information. Do not hesitate to send us as much as you can about Mirage 2000s events around the world. We would be pleased to receive: all the pictures you may have about this fabulous aircraft, any operational user article you would like to see in this publication, such as exercises, exchanges, Squadrons traditions, and more, some specific spotters photos keen on Mirage 2000. Because ENGAGE! is, above all, your publication, because ENGAGE! is the link between all Mirage 2000 users!

So, in other words, wed like to hear from you, send your letters to: Herv Hamon, Dassault Aviation, (DGI), 78, quai Marcel Dassault, 92552 Saint-Cloud, Cedex 300 France, Fax: (+33) 1 47 11 61 10 or at: engage@dassault-aviation.fr

www.dassault-aviation.com

www.snecma-moteurs.com

www.thales-airbornesystems.com

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