'Couteau Delta' - Mirage 2000D Tactical Display - French Air Force

The French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) 'Couteau Delta' Tactical Display at RAF Cosford Airshow 2024.
The team fly a pair of Dassault Mirage 2000D aircraft from the French Air & Space Force 3rd Fighter Wing, Squadrons 2/3 "Champagne" and 3/3 "Ardennes", based at Air Base 133 at Nancy-Ochey.
The tactical presentation of these two fighter-bombers illustrates the capabilities of the Mirage 2000D, constantly engaged in external operations, and the know-how of the crews.
The Couteau Delta are made up of a leader crew and a team crew, each of a pilot and a navigator. The team's flying crews are pilot Maxou and WSO (navigateur officier système d’arme, or NOSA) Zandé in the lead aircraft and pilot Gelo and WSO Santa in the second jet.
The aircraft for this display were both temporarily based from RAF Waddington and are 638 3-IJ Mirage 2000D 443 and 628 3-JL Mirage 2000D 430.
Specialized in ground attack missions, the Mirage 2000 D can carry out precision air-ground strikes in all weather, day and night, relying in particular on terrain following capacity at very low altitude. and very high speed.
A Two-seater conventional assault aircraft, the Mirage 2000D has benefited from regular adaptations since its entry into service. Today it offers indisputable operational efficiency in the air-ground domain and now also in intelligence, thanks to the ASTAC electromagnetic listening pod. Initiated in 2011, a capacity coherence plan already allows the Air and Space Force to have a homogeneous fleet of 55 aircraft. Link 16 is generalized to all of these aircraft, as is the equipment essential to air support missions, such as VHF-FM radios or the ROVER video transmission system, in aircraft as needed.
The Mirage 2000D is capable of providing target designation of all laser-guided munitions using ATLIS, PDL-CTS and Damocles designation pods. It can carry laser-guided GBU 12, 16, 22 and 24 munitions, the Mk82 bomb, the SCALP missile as well as the GBU 48, GBU 50 and GBU 49 with laser/GPS terminal guidance. These give the Mirage 2000D the ability to fire all-weather precision bombs.
The aircraft is used both in Air Interdiction (AI) and Close Air Support (CAS) missions. In addition, it also has L16 (tactical data link), SCARABEE (touch screen mission management assistance), VHF-FM, ROVER (radio and video links with ground troops) and ASTAC capabilities. (electromagnetic listening pod).
These and further mid-life improvements will allow the Mirage 2000D to continue operations, in addition to the Rafale, to beyond 2030. This modernization project aims to replace the Magic II air-to-air missiles with Mica IR, but also to integrate the DEFA 550 F3 cannon in a pod mounted at the front left side fuselage point of the aircraft in order to offer additional capacity to the Air and Space Force for Close Air Support missions (CAS). Furthermore, one of the objectives of the renovation is also to deal with obsolescence, such as that of the SCARABEE on-board PC, which allows better air-ground coordination. Finally, flight simulation systems will be upgraded.
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