RAF Lightning versus Mirage III DACT
Hello all!
Had a discussion the other day with some know-all friend of mine and he insisted that the Mirage III was a pure dogfighter whereas the Lightning was an interceptor and that the Lightning up close and personal didn't stand much chance of winning a fight against the delta french jet blah blah... which is nonsense of course.
I know the Mirage weighted at about 10-11 tons against 18.2t for the F.6 Lightning and about 16.8t for the F.3. The Mirage's SNECMA Atar pumped out only 6.2 tons of thrust to the Lightning's (F.3/6 doesn't matter) 14.9tons of thrust. So thrust to weight was decidedly in the Lightning's favour as was acceleration at all altitudes/configurations initial states, the Lightning presumably played the vertical quite significantly better and probably would have had a sustained turn advantage. According to wing areas the lightning had 80-85psf wing loading versus the Mirage's 60psf (at best) wing loading). Armament was similar guns-wise, slightly in favor of the Lightning in terms of missiles (especially if RT were carried) and it had a slightly better radar (ie, it had a radar that could actually help at the earlier stages of the fight in particular, whereas the Mirage III's radar by many accounts was as useful as ballast).
Just wanted to hear from anyone in the know, hopefully, particularly if he ever did engage Mirage 3s (say French AF IIIC or IIIE or Ozzie IIIOs). Coming to think of it didn't the Binbrook Lightnings play with the RAF Harrier force that was to be sent to the Falklands in order to train the mud movers to beat an Argie Mirage III? IF I recall Gordon Moulds' book on the Lightning pilots I think the Lightning actually played the Argie Mirage simulator by flying without reheat, which I guess speaks volumes in turns of the relative energy states that were available to both aircraft at the start of fight.