Mirage 4000
Contents
Description
During the 1970s, after the French evaluation of the F-15A fell through, Dassault took part in a private venture to build a "heavy fighter-interceptor" of similar magnitude as the F-15, primarily for the French Air Force and export to close French allies. By the end of the decade, they had completed the Mirage 4000, which at first glance appeared to be a scaled-up Mirage 2000 with canards and double the engines. The Mirage 4000 however was more than meets the eye, being armed with a large amount of air-to-air missiles for its interception role, and with powerful SNECMA M53 engines to give it unrivaled thrust for its time, the Mirage 4000 was better than the early F-15As in most ways. However, the French Air Force found the aircraft too expensive to field and decided to pursue further upgrades of the Mirage 2000 instead. As for the export customers, most either bought the F-15A instead due to political pressure, or in the case of Iran, had a revolution which severed the alliance with France and prevented them from buying the Mirage 4000. In the end, only one Mirage 4000 was built, which made 300+ test flights and airshow demonstrations, before being moved to its final resting place at the Musée de l'air et de l'espace (Paris Air and Space Museum) in November 1992. Much of the technology and experience gained from the Mirage 4000 would be used in the Dassault Rafale shortly after.
Introduced in Update "Air Superiority", the Mirage 4000 is a direct development of the older Mirage 2000, and the ultimate culmination of the Mirage family. The aircraft can serve a true multipurpose role, having incredible dogfighting performance and up to 8 x R.550 Magic 2 all-aspect missiles for close-in dogfighting, up to four Super 530D missiles and a powerful radar for BVR combat, and even the ATLIS targeting pod and a respectable amount of laser-guided bombs and AGMs for heavy CAS duty. All in all, the Mirage 4000 serves as a true reward at the end of the French ranks, building upon the playstyles learned from the previous Mirage 2000s and the F-8E (FN).
General info
Flight performance
Describe how the aircraft behaves in the air. Speed, manoeuvrability, acceleration and allowable loads - these are the most important characteristics of the vehicle.
| Characteristics | Max speed (km/h at 12,000 m) |
Max altitude (metres) |
Turn time (seconds) |
Rate of climb (metres/second) |
Take-off run (metres) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB | RB | AB | RB | AB | RB | |||
| Stock | 2,224 | 2,174 | 16000 | 23.9 | 24.8 | 229.0 | 216.9 | 750 |
| Upgraded | 2,410 | 2,318 | 23.3 | 23.5 | 325.2 | 275.0 | ||
Details
| Features | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat flaps | Take-off flaps | Landing flaps | Air brakes | Arrestor gear | Drogue chute |
| X | X | X | ✓ | X | ✓ |
| Limits | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings (km/h) | Gear (km/h) | Flaps (km/h) | Max Static G | |||
| Combat | Take-off | Landing | + | - | ||
| 1,560 | 426 | - | - | - | ~14 | ~__ |
| Optimal velocities (km/h) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Rudder | Elevators | Radiator |
| < 920 | < 750 | < 650 | - |
Engine performance
| Engine | Aircraft mass | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engine name | Number | Basic mass | Wing loading (full fuel) | ||||
| SNECMA M53-P2 | 2 | 13,000 kg | 303 kg/m2 | ||||
| Engine characteristics | Mass with fuel (no weapons load) | Max Gross Weight | |||||
| Weight (each) | Type | 13m fuel | 20m fuel | 30m fuel | 40m fuel | ||
| 1,515 kg | Afterburning low-bypass turbofan | 15,640 kg | 17,343 kg | 19,515 kg | 21,800 kg | 31,854 kg | |
| Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB/SB) | Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (WEP) | ||||||
| Condition | 100% | WEP | 13m fuel | 20m fuel | 30m fuel | 40m fuel | MGW |
| Stationary | 6,250 kgf | 9,745 kgf | 1.25 | 1.12 | 1.00 | 0.89 | 0.61 |
| Optimal | 7,194 kgf (1,555 km/h) |
13,713 kgf (1,555 km/h) |
1.75 | 1.58 | 1.41 | 1.26 | 0.86 |
Survivability and armour
Just like most other top rank jets, it is very vulnerable to gunfire and missiles alike, meaning it is most important to avoid getting hit at all in the first place. An upside however is that it can stay in the air even with just one engine left and the large airframe makes hits to non-critical components more likely than with tight packed aircraft like the F-16 series for example. Keep in mind that even hits that don't outright destroy you will still make a very noticeable impact on maximum speed and flight performance, rendering a retreat to the airfield the best option in many cases.
Modifications and economy
| Flight performance | Survivability | Weaponry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
| Ballistic Computer | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CCIP (Guns) | CCIP (Rockets) | CCIP (Bombs) | CCRP (Bombs) | Lead indicator |
 |
|
|
|
|
Offensive armament
The Mirage 4000 is armed with:
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 554 cannons, wing root-mounted (125 rpg = 250 total)
Suspended armament
The Mirage 4000 can be outfitted with the following ordnance:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 kg SAMP Type 25 bombs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 250 kg SAMP Type 25 200 bombs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 1,000 lb SAMP Mk 83 bombs | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 2,000 lb SAMP Mk 84 bombs | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 970 kg BGL-1000 bombs | 2† | |||||||||||
| SNEB type 23 rockets | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | ||||||||
| AS-30L Nord missiles | 1† | 1† | 1† | 1† | ||||||||
| Matra R550 Magic 2 missiles | 1 | 1 | 1, 2* | 1, 2* | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Matra Super 530D missiles | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Matra Super 530F missiles | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Large calibre countermeasures | 56 | 56 | ||||||||||
| ATLIS II targeting pod | 1† | |||||||||||
| 500 l drop tanks | 1* | 1* | ||||||||||
| 2,500 l drop tanks | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Maximum permissible weight imbalance: 1,500 kg | ||||||||||||
| * 500 litre drop tanks can only be equipped with dual Magic 2 missiles on the same hardpoint † ATLIS II pod must be equipped when equipping guided air-to-ground ordnance | ||||||||||||
| Default weapon presets | |
|---|---|
| |
Usage in battles
The "Super Mirage" is certainly an interesting plane. It is the bigger and stronger brother of the Mirage 2000, that might not have as many aces up its sleeve compared to the Mirage 2000-5F with its HMD and PD radar, but it more than makes up for it thrust, armament and agility.
While the Mirage 4000 is a heavier and therefore less manoeuvrable plane than the Mirage 2000, the addition of the canards and the extra power of the engines make it one of the best turning jets in-game, falling behind only the F-16A in raw manoeuvrability. It however remains a plane that is almost twice as heavy as its little brother, meaning that while it has great thrust, great turning capability and does not lose speed as fast as a Mirage 2000, you will feel that it is way less responsive, especially at lower speeds.
Overall, the Mirage 4000 is like having 2 Mirage 2000s glued together: twice the weight, twice the engine power, twice the missiles, twice the carrying capacity.
- Air Realistic Battles,
The Mirage 4000 can be used in multiple roles, Including being a missile bus, Support aircraft and even somewhat of a dogfighter. The best way to use the Mirage 4000 in Air RB is to use your high speed to get into a flanking position possibly bombing one base and then firing missiles at unsuspecting enemies. Afterwards, there are multiple possibilities. Either getting away in order to reposition and gain energy, or going straight into the "furball". Both options are possible due to the Mirage's Superior speed, Thrust, Energy retention and agility. The Mirage 4000 is a jack of all trades, being able to fill any role, but not being the best at any of them. You should always keep a good awareness of your surroundings and keep your energy up. Do not get stuck in extended turn fights.
The Mirage 4000 is as fuel efficient as the Mirage 2000, meaning that 20 minutes is enough if you do not afterburn all the way to the battle. Packing 30 minutes fuel ensures you better endurance, while 40 minutes fuel can extend your endurance further. The Mirage 4000 has multiple options of fuel tanks: either 2 x large drop tanks, with around 20 minutes of fuel; or 2 x smaller fuel tanks, carrying around 4 minutes of fuel can also be installed. These fuel tanks cannot be dropped, they are installed on the innermost armament pylons, but can however hold 2 x Magic II missiles each. In practice, this means that if you wish to take 8 x missiles, you have to take these fuel tanks, which make the plane slightly heavier. If you wish to take 4 x Super 530Ds, You will be limiting yourself to 6 x missiles. The most well rounded loadout for the Mirage 4000 would be the 2 x small fuel tanks, each carrying 2 x Matra Magic II Missiles, 2 x Super 530Ds along with the outer-most pylon Magic IIs, bringing you to a total of 6 x IR missiles and 2 x radar missiles. A payload of 11 x 250 kg bombs can be taken on the pylons under the fuselage, letting you destroy one base.
- Ground Realistic Battles
The Mirage 4000 is a very scary plane. It can carry a good amount of ordnance. While the ordnance is not fire-and-forget, it packs a punch. A big downside is that the Mirage 4000 only gets access to an ALTIS II targetting pod, which does not have any thermal capability. In practice, this means that the Mirage 4000 is useless at ground pounding if the weather conditions are cloudy, foggy or in low light conditions. Spotting targets is also harder, however the zoom of the ALTIS II is better than on the DAMOCLES targetting pod of the Mirage 2000-5F. The Most effective loadout for Ground RB is 4 x AS-30L missiles, which are very lethal with a direct hit, and 2 x BGL-1000 laser-guided bombs. The first thing you should do after spawning in is searching for enemy SPAA. If you have not identified SPAA in around 5 seconds after spawning in, you should dive and put distance, objects or terrain between you and the battlefield as soon as possible, in order to avoid any possible missiles coming at you. Do keep in mind that a missile can be guided to you even if no one is hard locking you. SPAAs at this tier have IRST and even TWS, making it especially hard to know a missile is fired at you unless you clearly see the launch. When the threat (SPAA) is eliminated, you can finally start getting close and destroying ground targets. You should constantly keep your eyes on the RWR in case any plane spawns in. Try not to turn a lot. The Mirage 4000 becomes very vulnerable once it lost all of its speed. You should do passes and bombing runs rather than staying right above the battlefield and dropping ordnance.
Overall, the Super Mirage is a truly capable multirole aircraft, that is more than capable at dealing with any situation one might throw at it. This however does not mean that the plane is clearly superior to anything else it might fight, quite the opposite. It just lets the pilot do some things other planes do not. It can be a scary and formidable foe to fight against.
It is a plane with which you can play in your own playstyle, rather than forcing you into a playstyle of its own.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Excellent flight performance in all situations
- Magic 2 missiles are very effective and it carries up to 8 of them
- Has access to Super 530D radar missiles
- Wide variety of air-to-ground weapons, like various (guided) bombs, guided missiles and rockets
Cons:
- Super 530D missiles lag behind contemporaries like R-27ER and AIM-7M at short range
- Easy to bleed speed in extended turns, at which point it becomes vulnerable to faster foes
- Lack of an HMD
History
In 1970, France, which was already a well-recognized aircraft manufacturer, decided to develop 4th gen fighters. The project led to the Mirage 2000, which was an incredible success, and the Mirage 4000. Most majors of the French Air Force wanted a versatile twin-jet. The Super Mirage was at first designed to be a successor to the Mirage IV nuclear bomber, launched on the personal initiative of Marcel Dassault, being the last European combat aircraft financed with its manufacturer's own funds. It was designed to have a similar size to the Sukhoi Su-27 or the McDonnell Douglas F-15.
Dassault-Breguet used knowledge gained from the Mirage F2 to create the Super Mirage. After that, the French majors abandoned the idea of it being a fighter-bomber and designed it to be a fighter, more manoeuvrable than the F-15. The F-15 prototypes had an angle of incidence of 19° while the Mirage 4000 had one of a whopping 26°. The F-15 had a maximum G-forces limit of 7G, but the Mirage had one of 9G+. It is mostly composed of composite materials to make it as light as possible and could hold three times more fuel than its little brother. The Super Mirage's engines were picked from the Mirage 2000 project; it was basically a Mirage 2000, but bigger, hence the name.
The Super Mirage 4000 had its first flight on 9th March 1979 with test pilot Jean-Marie Saget. From its sixth flight, it reached Mach-2, for comparison, the Mirage 2000 can go Mach 2.2. Its weight is 10,200 kg, while the Mirage 4000 weighed 18,800 kg and could go 105 km/h faster (2,340 km/h for the Mirage 2000 and 2,445 km/h for the Super Mirage). It had an amazing climb rate as it could go up to 50,000fts in just 3m50. It had 11 hard points, and was able to carry various armaments including the radar pod "Antilope V", Matra R550 Magic 2, and Matra Super 530D.
The King of Saudi Arabia, "Khaled ben Abdelaziz Al Saoud", the Shah of Iran, "Mohammad Reza Chah Pahlavi", and the Iraqi government were interested in the project. However, after long discussions with Saudi Arabia and Iran, a deal was not able to be concluded. Sources suspect that Iraq wanted it as a "budget" F-15, as French aircraft have usually the best quality/price ratio for Iraq and similar nations. It was a logical choice for Iraq as they already operated the Mirage F1.
The majors of the French Air Force didn't want to industrialize the Super Mirage, the expected 5 Mirage 4000 were canceled because of the loss of funds. Since it wasn't ordered, it couldn't be exported, leading to failure. In December 1977, the Air Force asked the Aeronautical Construction Directorate of the Ministry of Defense to conduct a review of a tactical combat aircraft (ACT in French, and TCA in English), intended to succeed the Jaguars. Dassault-Breguet then began studying the ACX/Rafale.
The Super Mirage 4000 made a whopping 336 test flights, with the last one on the 8th of January 1988. The Super Mirage was later delivered to the https://www.museeairespace.fr/en Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace du Bourget in a "desert" livery. In 2002, the association "IT Mercure" repainted it in its iconic livery, which it features in-game.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the aircraft;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
- [Le musée de l'Air et de l'Espace] Dassault Super Mirage 4000
- IT Mercure
- [Dassault Aviation] Mirage 4000
| Dassault Aviation | |
|---|---|
| WW2* | |
| Fighters | M.B.152C1 · M.B.157 |
| Bombers | M.B.162 · M.B.174A-3 · M.B.175T |
| Jet Aircraft | |
| M.D 450 | M.D.450B Barougan · M.D.450B Ouragan |
| Mystère | M.D.452 IIA · M.D.452 IIC · Mystere IVA |
| Super Mystère | Super Mystere B2 |
| Étendard | Etendard IVM |
| Super Étendard | Super Etendard |
| Alpha Jet | Alpha Jet E** |
| Mirage | |
| Mirage III | Mirage IIIC · Mirage IIIE · Milan |
| Mirage V | Mirage 5F |
| Mirage F1 | Mirage F1C · Mirage F1C-200 · Mirage F1CT |
| Mirage 2000 | Mirage 2000-5F · Mirage 2000C-S4 · Mirage 2000C-S5 · Mirage 2000D-R1 · Mirage 2000D-RMV |
| Mirage 4000 | Mirage 4000 |
| Export | |
| M.D 450 | M.D.450B Ouragan |
| Mystere | Mystere IVA |
| Super Mystère | Sambad · Sa'ar*** |
| Mirage | Shahak · ▄Mirage 5BA · ␗Mirage 2000-5Ei |
| *The company was named "Société des Avions Marcel Bloch" before being renamed in 1947 | |
| **Jointly manufactured with Dornier Flugzeugwerke | |
| ***Israeli Super Mystère refitted with new avionics and an American engine | |
| See also | SABCA |
| France jet aircraft | |
|---|---|
| Fighters | M.D.450B Ouragan · M.D.450B Barougan · M.D.452 IIA · M.D.452 IIC · Mystere IVA · Super Mystere B2 |
| ▄F-86K · ▄F-100D · ▄F-8E(FN) | |
| Mirage IIIC · Mirage IIIE · Milan · Mirage 5F · Mirage 2000C-S4 · Mirage 2000C-S5 · Mirage 2000-5F · Mirage 4000 | |
| Mirage F1C · Mirage F1C-200 · Mirage F1CT | |
| Strike aircraft | ▄F-84F · F-84F IAF · ▄F-84G-26-RE |
| Etendard IVM · Super Etendard · Alpha Jet E | |
| Jaguar A · Jaguar E · Mirage 2000D-R1 · Mirage 2000D-RMV | |
| Bombers | S.O.4050 Vautour IIA · Vautour IIA IDF/AF · S.O.4050 Vautour IIB · S.O.4050 Vautour IIN · S.O.4050 Vautour IIN (late) |
| Belgium | ▄Meteor F Mk.8 · ▄Mirage 5BA · ▄F-104G · ▄F-16A · ▄F-16AM |
| Netherlands | ◘Sea Hawk Mk.50 · ◘Hunter F.6 |
