Dassault and Thales confirms the modernization of Indian Mirage 2000
29/07/2011 at 12:18 The two companies today announced the signing of the contract for the retrofit of the 51 Indian hunters.
In a terse press release issued this morning, Dassault Aviation and Thales announce the signing of the contract for the modernization of 51 Mirage fighters 2000H/TH Indian Air Force (IAF), thus confirming the green light is given by New Delhi is ten days (cf. A & C No. 2275). The total contract value is estimated at about 1.7 billion excluding armaments. ($2.4 billion US dollars)
Short on details, the two French companies simply specify that the contract covers "the integration of equipment and systems of last generation that will allow the optimization of technical and operational capabilities of the Mirage 2000." In fact, it's a real facelift which will benefit the Indians single-engine, which will be brought to a standard similar to that of the Mirage 2000-9 and UAE Mirage 2000-5 Greek. The first four hunters should be processed in France, while the rest will be retrofitted in India. No timetable has been announced, but all indications are that this project could be extended until 2016-2017.
At the heart of the new navigation and attack radar is the RDY-3, the ultimate evolution of the family RDY which a reduced-size version has been built on the Moroccan Mirage F1 modernized. This radar will provide the fire control air-air missiles to be selected to equip the aircraft - probably the MBDA Mica, as amended from infrared-guided and electromagnetic. It will also be associated with a helmet sight Dash, of Israeli origin.
Self-protection devices will also be renovated, with the integration of the latest version of ICMS (Integrated Counter Measures Continued) Thales, which will include equipping aircraft new capabilities for detecting and warning of electromagnetic interference .
In the longer term, the renovation of air-ground capabilities of the fleet is also envisaged. Originally delivered as air defense aircraft, the Mirage 2000H/TH in India have benefited local improvements have enabled them to implement the laser guided weapons, and that using the Israeli LITENING pod. A small part of the fleet would also have been elevated to a strategic vector, with the capability of delivering nuclear gravity bombs.
The adoption of the RDY-3, with its advanced air-ground modes (mapping, terrain following, synthetic imaging ...) will strengthen these capacities. Moreover, a tender should be launched for the purchase of new guided weapons for that platform. For now, Sagem / MBDA would include in the running for the supply of AASM, facing an Israeli offer to base the guidance kit Spice.