Ismael2 Member
Posts: 18
(10/11/05 12:49 pm) Reply
France to upgrade Moroccan Mirages
Well, let's try to bring a bit of life to the group with new topics:
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France to upgrade Moroccan Mirages
Peter Lewis JDW Correspondent
Paris
Morocco has awarded France a contract worth around EUR350 million (USD420 million) to overhaul the Moroccan Air Force's mostly grounded fleet of 27 French Mirage F1-CH/EH fighter aircraft.
The contract, signed during a brief visit by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to Rabat on 26-27 September, will involve renovating the airframes, engines and avionic suite of the aircraft delivered to Morocco in the late 1980s by Dassault Aviation. It is believed over half of the aircraft are no longer airworthy.
Morocco decided to renovate the aircraft instead of buying surplus US F-16 multi-role fighters as had long been considered, according to sources in Rabat.
The programme, which is to begin in 2006, will be headed by a joint venture between Thales and Sagem, now part of the Safran group.
Thales is to fit the aircraft with its RC400 multi-target radar: a derivative of its RDY radar.
Dassault and Snecma Moteurs will also be involved in the programme, according to industry sources.The EUR350 million package includes around EUR100 million for armaments for the renovated Mirage F1s. These will be MICA air-to-air missiles made by MBDA as well as Sagem's new AASM bomb kit. Thales and Sagem had previously vied against one another for the contract but were asked by the French government to combine their efforts in a joint venture named Astrac (Association Sagem Thales pour la Rénovation d'Avions de Combat) to bid for the deal, as well as for other future export contracts.
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These are, in part, good news for Morocco (a renovation including MICA missiles and AASM bombs is indeed good) but also bad ones (no more F-16). It is not good to know that the Mirages are "mostly grounded" and that half of them "are no longer airworthy". That leaves only 13-14 Mirages as the backbone of the airforce.
Re: France to upgrade Moroccan Mirages
My dad actually thinks such upgrades a superflous & wrote an article outlining a case for purchasing the Rafale & developing closer links to Dassault, including major standardisation of equipment based on the French armed forces (at least as far as the RMAF goes). He even favours a leasing of the A-400M & acquisition of the NH-90 & even surplus Super Pumas.
nada
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