ATAC buy 63 Mirage F-1s

[ORAC]

That is one hell of a good price - even if half are going to be stripped for spares.....

ATAC said to have bought 63 Mirage F1s

It was reported last month that American company Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC) had bought 63 ex-French Mirage F1 fighters for 21 million euros. Between 30 and 45 aircraft will be refurbished to fly again as adversaries against U.S. military aircraft.

[skydiver69]

I wonder if the Argentinians are jealous that an American company can buy more fighters in one go than they have managed to do since the Falklands?

[Marcantilan]

Not really. But thanks for asking.

[rjtjrt]

Originally Posted by Marcantilan

Not really. But thanks for asking.

Marcantilan, great comeback.

[recceguy]

28 millions euros ? you cannot even buy a single modern fighter for that, and by far ...

But on the other hand, they were going to scrap them eventually, so ..

Beautiful fighters, in any case.

[Bengo]

Anyone know how the US will deal with registration/airworthiness for these aircraft? In the UK they would need military serials etc... Will ATAC put them on the FAA register as experimental category a/c or will they get Bu Numbers or similar?


N

[Evalu8ter]

Bengo,
They wouldn't necessarily need mlitary serials. HHA have done both (though now focus on mil registration) and FRA/Cobham have kept the Falcon 20s on the civil register for low-level anti ship and EW emulation. It depends on your AOC, Ops Manual and other dispensations you have from the ANO and other regulations.

In the US, the 'Restricted-Utility' would likely be the preferred path. Their current aircraft are 'N' reg.....

[ImageGear]

Interesting to know who will occupy the cockpits after the refurb. Can't be too many current F1/Tactics jocks in the USAF/Marines Corps.

Training package with that sir?

Imagegear

[RAFEngO74to09]

Originally Posted by ImageGear

Interesting to know who will occupy the cockpits after the refurb. Can't be too many current F1/Tactics jocks in the USAF/Marines Corps.

Training package with that sir?

Imagegear

Does not appear to have been a problem with ATACs KFIRs or competitor Draken's 25-aircraft Mig-21BIS fleet. Clearly plenty of US military FJ retirees love the opportunity to be involved in this sort of activity.

This is what ATAC gets involved in:

ATAC - Operations

Also, the tactics employed by the aircraft's previous operator is pretty irrelevant. It's more about providing threat simulation through the use of clever electronic emulation. For instance, in the case of Draken's A-4Ks, F-16MLU.

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk | Draken International

[SpazSinbad]

The RAN FAA Skyhawk airframes listed are now 50 years old.

List of ex-A4Gs / ex-A-4K Kahus – survivors — gone DRAKEN below:

Bu.No. then NZ then RAN numbers DRAKEN
154904 ex NZ6212 = ex RAN A4G 883 N142EM
154905 ex NZ6213 = ex RAN A4G 884 N143EM
154908 ex NZ6214 = ex RAN A4G 887 N144EM
155052 ex NZ6215 = ex RAN A4G 871 N145EM
155063 ex NZ6217 = ex RAN A4G 876 N146EM
155069 ex NZ6218 = ex RAN A4G 877 N147EM

[ORAC]

ATAC will upgrade newly acquired F1s with DRFM jammers, AESA radars

[DirtyProp]

It would be interesting to know the hourly, operational costs of those.
Anybody has some figures?

[Starbucks Love Child]

Looks like the Mirage F1 will have an AESA in-service before Typhoon and probably with more than one operator at a guess reading the press over the last few weeks.