Bonsoir,France to upgrade Moroccan Mirages
Peter Lewis JDW Correspondent
Paris
Morocco has awarded France a contract worth around EUR350 million (USD420 million) to overhaul the Moroccan Air Force's mostly grounded fleet of 27 French Mirage F1-CH/EH fighter aircraft.
The contract, signed during a brief visit by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to Rabat on 26-27 September, will involve renovating the airframes, engines and avionic suite of the aircraft delivered to Morocco in the late 1980s by Dassault Aviation. It is believed over half of the aircraft are no longer airworthy.
Morocco decided to renovate the aircraft instead of buying surplus US F-16 multi-role fighters as had long been considered, according to sources in Rabat.
The programme, which is to begin in 2006, will be headed by a joint venture between Thales and Sagem, now part of the Safran group.
Thales is to fit the aircraft with its RC400 multi-target radar: a derivative of its RDY radar.
Dassault and Snecma Moteurs will also be involved in the programme, according to industry sources.The EUR350 million package includes around EUR100 million for armaments for the renovated Mirage F1s. These will be MICA air-to-air missiles made by MBDA as well as Sagem's new AASM bomb kit. Thales and Sagem had previously vied against one another for the contract but were asked by the French government to combine their efforts in a joint venture named Astrac (Association Sagem Thales pour la Rénovation d'Avions de Combat) to bid.
j'apelle les pros de mirage afin de savoir 2/3 trucs, j'aimerais comparer la modernisation des Mirages F1 marocains avec l'ensemble de la gamme Dassault, nottament la famille M2000c/5...
Que vaut un F1modernisé avec le radar RC400+Mica face a la famille 2000 et le radar RDY ? en air/air et air/sol !
Je lit assez souvent sur un certain forum marocain, que le F1 modernisé serait une vraie bete ! je suis convaincu que cet une exelente modernisation, mais a quoi sert la famille des 2000 et le rafale alors ?
de plus que vaut ce mirage f1 face au autres utilisateur de f1 (afrique du sud et espagne de tete)
merci et dsl si ce post et un peu long !