Ukrainian pilots have been mastering Mirage fighters in France for a month – Le Figaro
As in the case of tanks, France could again become a pioneer in the supply of new types of weapons to Ukraine.
France has been secretly training Ukrainian pilots to fly its Mirage 2000 fighters. Training has been going on at Mont-de-Marsan and Nancy air bases for more than a month now. This is written by the French edition of Le Figaro.
The publication notes that the allies criticized France a lot “for the ambiguity of its policy” towards Russia.
“However, France has repeatedly been at the forefront of military assistance to Ukraine, first with CAESAR howitzers, and then with AMX armored vehicles. The latter paved the way for the supply of Western heavy tanks, in particular the famous Leopard,” the material says.
It is noted that in the issue of aircraft, France may also be a pioneer among Ukraine’s Western partners. According to the publication, about 30 Ukrainian pilots are being trained on Mirage 2000 fighters. This decision was made even before Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to Paris, which took place on February 8.
Dassault Mirage 2000 – general information
The Mirage 2000 is a fourth-generation multirole fighter aircraft developed by the French company Dassault in the 1970s. It has been in service with the French Air Force since 1984, and was also purchased by some countries in Europe, Asia and South America.
Mirage 2000 is the same age as the Soviet Su-27 and MiG-29, i.e. by now it’s pretty outdated. Today, the French Air Force is gradually replacing the Mirage 2000 with the more modern Dassault Rafale.
At the end of January, the French authorities for the first time publicly announced that they were allowing the delivery of their fighter jets to Ukraine. In early March, these statements became more substantive. It was said that Paris could transfer 12 Mirage 2000 fighters to Kyiv.