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Why Mirage of ’80s is IAF’s ‘weapon of choice’
- India with its 12 Mirage-2000 fighter jets decimated multiple terror camps across the Line of Control in Pakistan.
- The Mirage-2000 is one of the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) most versatile and deadliest aircraft and it was first commissioned in 1985.Soon after inducting the Mirage, IAF gave it the name – Vajra – meaning lightning thunderbolt in Sanskrit.
- The fighters, manufactured by French planemaker Dassault Aviation, can carry a mix of bombs and missiles on its nine hard points.Apart from India, Dassault sold the Mirage 2000 to 8 other countries, including the home country of France, Egypt, UAE, Peru, Taiwan, Peru, Greece and Brazil.
- The Mirage-2000 can carry out precision strikes during day and night and had played a decisive role in the 1999 war of Kargil.
- In 2011, a contract was signed to upgrade the existing Mirage-2000 jets with (a) advanced avionics (b) new multi-mode target radars (c)reconfigure glass cockpits (d) state-of-the-art warfare systems and (e) capability to launch advanced missiles.
