Early development The
Mirage 5 grew out of a request to Dassault from the
Israeli Air Force. Since the weather over the Middle East is clear and sunny most of the time, the Israelis suggested removing the
air intercept radar and its avionics, normally located behind the cockpit, from the standard Mirage IIIE to reduce cost and maintenance, and replacing them with more fuel storage for attack missions. In September 1966, the Israelis placed an order for 50 of the new aircraft. Due to customer preference, some variants of the Mirage 5 were radar-equipped.
Mirage 5 The first Mirage 5 flew on 19 May 1967. It looked much like the Mirage III, except that it had a long, slender nose that extended the aircraft's length by about half a metre. A
pitot tube was distinctively moved from the tip of the nose to below the nose in the majority of Mirage 5 variants. The Mirage 5 retained the IIIE's twin DEFA guns, but added two additional pylons, for a total of seven. Maximum warload was 4,000 kg (8,800 lb). Provision for the SEPR rocket engine was deleted. Like the Mirage IIIE, the Mirage 5 was popular with export customers, with different export variants fitted with a wide range of different avionics. While the Mirage 5 had been originally oriented to the clear-weather attack role, with some avionic fits, it was refocused to the air-combat mission. As electronic systems became more compact and powerful, providing the Mirage 5 with increased capability became possible, though the rear avionics bay had been deleted; in some subvariants, the result was a "reinvented" Mirage IIIE. Reconnaissance and two-seat versions of the Mirage 5 were sold, with the designation Mirage 5R, and Mirage 5D, respectively. The Mirage 5 was sold to
Abu Dhabi,
Belgium,
Colombia,
Egypt,
Gabon,
Pakistan,
Peru,
Venezuela, with the usual list of subvariant designations and variations in kit. The Belgian aircraft were fitted with mostly US avionics, and some Egyptian aircraft were fitted with the MS2 attack avionics system from the
Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet. In total, 582 Mirage 5s have been built, including 51 Israeli Neshers.
Belgian production takes off in 1989 In 1968, the Belgian government ordered 106 Mirage 5s from Dassault. All aircraft but the first one of each variant were to be license-built by SABCA in Belgium. Component production at the SABCA Haren plant near Brussels was followed by assembly at the SABCA plant at Gosselies airfield, near Charleroi. The ATAR engines were produced by FN Moteurs at this company's Liège plant. SABCA production included three versions: Mirage 5BA for the ground-attack role, Mirage 5BR for the reconnaissance role and Mirage 5BD for training and conversion. After completion, the Belgian government sold all 20 aircraft to Chile, together with 4 non-upgraded Mirage 5BRs, and one non-upgraded Mirage 5BD.
IAI Nesher Rising tensions in the Middle East led French President
Charles de Gaulle to
embargo the Israeli Mirage 5s on 3 June 1967. The Mirages continued to roll off the production line, though they were embargoed, and by 1968, the batch was complete and the Israelis had provided final payments. In late
1969, the Israelis, who had pilots in France testing the aircraft, requested that the aircraft be transferred to
Corsica, in theory to allow them to continue flight training during the winter. The French government became suspicious when the Israelis also tried to obtain long-range fuel tanks and cancelled the move. The Israelis finally gave up trying to acquire the aircraft and accepted a refund. Some sources claim that cooperation with France resumed outside the public's eye and Israel received 50 Mirage 5s in crates from the
French Air Force, while the French took over the 50 aircraft originally intended for Israel, as Mirage 5Fs. Officially, Israel claimed to have built the aircraft after obtaining complete blueprints, naming them
IAI Nesher and later developed it into the
IAI Kfir.
Mirage 50 The development and subsequent installation of the new Atar 9K50 engine led to the next Mirage variant, the
Mirage 50, during the 1970s. The uprated engine gave the Mirage 50 better takeoff and climb characteristics than its predecessors. The Mirage 50 also incorporated new avionics, such as a Cyrano IV radar system. However, despite these upgrades, it did not prove popular in export sales as the Mirage 5 itself was becoming obsolete.
Chile ordered a quantity of Mirage 50s, receiving both new production as well as updated Armée de l'Air Mirage 5s. The Chilean aircraft were later modernised along the lines of the
IAI Kfir and were called the
ENAER Pantera. The Pantera incorporates fixed
canards and other aerodynamic improvements, as well as advanced
avionics, an in-flight refuelling probe, a reinforced landing gear, and two additional harpoints under the fuselage. These aircraft have an extended nose to accommodate some of the new systems. In the early 1990s, Dassault upgraded a batch of Venezuelan Mirage IIIEVs and 5s to Mirage 50 standards, in addition to some newly built aircraft.
Mirage 5 ROSE In the 1990s, the
PAF launched a
Mid-life update (MLU) program, codenamed as
Project ROSE (Retrofit Of Strike Element), to its
Mirage III and Mirage 5 aircraft with modern
avionics provided by French, Italian, and Pakistani companies. The PAF acquired
blueprint drawings of the aircraft from France, redeveloping and redesigning it at the
Pakistan Aeronautical Complex. In the first phase of the project, former
Royal Australian Air Force Mirage III fighters received a modernisation designated
ROSE I. Twenty of them were upgraded with new cockpit equipments including multifunction displays and a head-up display,
navigation/attack suites, defensive aids systems, encrypted radios, a radar altimeter and a
forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor under the aircraft's nose, under the ROSE II program. Additionally, 14 Mirage 5Fs were similarly upgraded but with newer systems, under a program designated ROSE III. The FLIR sensors enable the Mirage 5 ROSE fighters to specialise in the night-time attack role. == Operational history ==