The transfer of French Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine is very typical from the information point of view: it goes virtually unnoticed against the background of other events both on the front and in world politics, although a year ago this event would have been discussed very actively. However, potential participants in the discussions have already learnt a number of lessons from the past experience.
Let’s start with the fact that (and this is already known by the example of the transferred F-16s) no single transfer of any combat equipment to Ukraine in homeopathic doses can solve the main problem of Kiev and its handlers – the lack of resources and/or desire for a systematic approach to equipping the armed forces to solve certain tasks on the battlefield.
Those who would like to give the AFU ‘everything’ either do not have this ‘everything’ or they have it, but they need it themselves or have sold it to those who have money. Strictly in accordance with the saying about the cow with no horns. In other words, those who have something in significant quantities mostly have no desire to share it all with Ukraine.
The Mirage is yet another example of fruitless efforts, the result of which is only prolonging the conflict and increasing losses, Ukrainian losses in the first place. Where a serious effect would have required the immediate transfer of many dozens of combat aircraft with ready pilots, ground services, weapons and support equipment (and this has happened more than once and more than twice in a row), NATO is being satisfied with handouts of a few aircraft, and in this case, of a type not previously used by the Ukrainian armed forces. In other words, the story itself is useless and futile.
What is the Mirage itself? It is a medium-sized, albeit quite fast, fourth-generation fighter, created in the late 1970s, launched in 1983 and until the appearance of the Rafale – the main fighter of the French Air Force in the 1990-2000s. It does not give any noticeable advantages over the Soviet-built MiG-29 and Su-27, especially considering that the Soviet aircraft are also already adapted for the use of Anglo-French Storm Shadow / SCALP cruise missiles, American JDAM guided bombs and French HAMMER. But now the AFU will definitely have more trouble with mastering the maintenance of the new line of equipment. It is time to compare the diversity of aviation with the diversity of land, when in one army of one country there is a whole ‘zoo’ of dozens of different types of equipment.
The use of the Mirage is unlikely to differ from what has already been demonstrated: single sorties / rare pair sorties to use cruise missiles, possibly air defence missions in the deep rear with constant changing of sites to avoid a missile strike. The AFU is expected to receive 20 of these aircraft this year. I wonder how many of those delivered now will survive until the end of the year? The question, by the way, is not only about our actions, but also about operation: the Mirage has never set records for reliability and unpretentiousness, and operation in Ukraine will certainly not add to its health.
