Mirage IIIC
Contents
Description
The Mirage IIIC is a rank VII French jet fighter with a battle rating of 10.3 (AB/SB) and 10.0 (RB). It was introduced in Update "Starfighters".
General info
Flight performance
| 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 | 2,087 | 2,045 | 16000 | 29.5 | 30.1 | 109.3 | 97.7 | 750 |
| Upgraded | 2,238 | 2,160 | 26.7 | 28.0 | 173.1 | 140.0 | ||
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 | + | - | ||
| 0 | 426 | N/A | N/A | N/A | ~12 | ~5 |
| Optimal velocities (km/h) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Rudder | Elevators | Radiator |
| < 920 | < 750 | < 650 | N/A |
Engine performance
| Engine | Aircraft mass | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engine name | Number | Basic Mass | Wing loading (full fuel, no booster) | ||||
| SNECMA Atar 9B | 1 | 6,340 kg | 258 kg/m2 | ||||
| Engine characteristics | Mass with fuel (no weapons load, no booster) | Max Takeoff Weight | |||||
| Weight (each) | Type | 13m fuel | 20m fuel | 30m fuel | 44m fuel | ||
| 1,450 kg | Afterburning axial-flow turbojet | 6,891 kg | 7,188 kg | 7,612 kg | 8,206 kg | 10,950 kg | |
| Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB / SB) | Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (WEP, no booster) | ||||||
| Condition | 100% | WEP | 13m fuel | 20m fuel | 30m fuel | 44m fuel | MTOW |
| Stationary | 4,230 kgf | 6,090 kgf | 0.88 | 0.85 | 0.80 | 0.74 | 0.56 |
| Optimal | 5,118 kgf (1,200 km/h) |
8,105 kgf (1,200 km/h) |
1.18 | 1.13 | 1.06 | 0.99 | 0.74 |
Survivability and armour
The Mirage IIIC has no armour and is very susceptible to damage. Hits that do not outright destroy the aircraft will severely hamper manoeuvrability and performance. A damaged engine will require immediate landing, since the aircraft loses a lot of energy while turning, the loss of power will be very noticeable. Wing or tail/rudder damage will result in flatspins if the aircraft is taken to low speeds or if too many G's are pulled.
Overall, if damaged, a pilot should seek to land as soon as possible while attempting to make as few manoeuvres as possible.
Modifications and economy
| Flight performance | Survivability | Weaponry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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|
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Armaments
Suspended armament
The Mirage IIIC can be outfitted with the following ordnance:
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons (125 rpg = 250 total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530E missile
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530 missile
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x Matra R550 Magic 1 missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530E missile + 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530E missile + 2 x Matra R550 Magic 1 missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530E missile + 36 x SNEB type 23 rockets + 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530E missile + 36 x SNEB type 23 rockets + 2 x Matra R550 Magic 1 missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530 missile + 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530 missile + 2 x Matra R550 Magic 1 missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530 missile + 36 x SNEB type 23 rockets + 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x Matra R530 missile + 36 x SNEB type 23 rockets + 2 x Matra R550 Magic 1 missiles
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x AS-30 Nord missile + 36 x SNEB type 23 rockets
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 1 x AS-30 Nord missile + 72 x SNEB type 23 rockets
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 250 kg SAMP Type 25 bombs (500 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 400 kg SAMP Type 21 bombs (800 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 250 kg SAMP Type 25 bombs + 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles (500 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 250 kg SAMP Type 25 bombs + 2 x Matra R550 Magic 1 missiles (500 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 250 kg SAMP Type 25 bombs + 36 x SNEB type 23 rockets (500 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 250 kg SAMP Type 25 bombs + 72 x SNEB type 23 rockets (500 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 400 kg SAMP Type 21 bombs + 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles (800 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 400 kg SAMP Type 21 bombs + 2 x Matra R550 Magic 1 missiles (800 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 400 kg SAMP Type 21 bombs + 36 x SNEB type 23 rockets (800 kg total)
- 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons + 2 x 400 kg SAMP Type 21 bombs + 72 x SNEB type 23 rockets (800 kg total)
- 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles
- 2 x Matra R550 Magic 1 missiles
Usage in battles
The Mirage IIIC is a multirole strike fighter which can be used in a wide variety of roles from air-to-air and a really limited role in air-to-ground.
When in air battles:
The Mirage IIIC is one of the most feared planes in the sky, not only because of its speed but because of its powerful air-to-air missiles. The Mirage has a wide range of AAMs featuring both IR seeker and radar-guided missiles: the AIM-9B, Matra R550 Magic 1, Matra R530E and the Matra R530. Each of the missiles has its pros and cons which will be explained. It should be noted that the Mirage should not be used as a bomber in Air Realistic battles due to its mediocre bomb payload.
AIM-9B:
This is one of the most universal and basic IR AAM which is available in many nations. Although they are one of the easiest missiles to evade, their speed and range make them deadly against unaware enemies.
Matra R550 Magic 1:
This is a unique French IR AAM which is hard to evade without the use of flares due to its high speed, G-limit and firing range. They are similar to the SRAAM missiles in terms of use due to its G-limit. The main difference is that the R550 does not have a thrust vectoring system, meaning it has to gain speed when launched in order to make turns which differs from SRAAM which can turn while gaining speed in super short distances (less than 1 km but greater than 200 m) due to the vectoring thrust.
Matra R530E:
This IR AAM has a tremendous explosive power, speed, and firing range. Despite not being the most agile AAM in the game, they are the best IR long range AAM. This comes with a cost, the Mirage only has access to 1 carried on the belly pylon. This missile should only be used when chasing enemy planes in a run, not while turning. The main downside is fighting against planes with Infrared Countermeasures (IRCM) and Missile Alert Warning (MAW) which will automatically dump flares upon detecting the missile.
Matra R530:
This is the biggest radar-guided AAM in the game, exactly the same as the R530E but with radar guidance and without a maximum lock-on range in rear aspect, meaning it can be fired at any target locked by the radar no matter the aspect (rear, front, side, etc). The main downsides of this missile are the same as the R530E but this time it loses its "stealth" factor as many planes carry Radar Warning Receivers (RWR). MAW, IRCM and flares will not affect the performance of the missile as the only way to evade a radar lock-on missile is to escape from the radar range and azimuth or by causing interference using the ground (refer to Airborne radars#Clutter).
Take the required payload upon discretion.
When in ground battles:
The Mirage has a decent payload when in GRB. Although limited, the Mirage can do competitive CAS runs with the SNEB rocket pods, bombs, and Nord AGMs. With the help of the ballistic computer, the Mirage is capable of enhancing the accuracy of this armament in addition to its 30 mm gun pods. It should be noted that the amount of ordnance is really small (only 36 x SNEB rockets, 2 x 400 kg bombs, 2 x 250 kg bombs, or 1 x AS-30 Nord AGM) but can be deadly in a good pilot's hands.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Magic missiles have very high probability of kill
- Long range Matra R530E missile allows you to catch pilots by surprise
- 30 mm cannons are nose-mounted, so there is little need for convergence
- Very manoeuvrable
- Variety of suspended armament is vast
Cons:
- Bleeds energy at high angles of attack
- Relatively low thrust to weight ratio compared to its peers
- No armour
- Oldest/weakest engine of all current top-rank planes
- Can't accelerate from dogfight in time
- No flares
- No RWR
History
Post-war French aviation
Back in the 1940s, after the Second World War, although France was still in ruins at this time, the French aviation design team had never stopped their research work. The first design built by France after the Second World War was the famous VB.10 fighter, which completed its first flight mission in 1947, though the original design work was started in 1940 and interrupted by the German invasion. Even though the French designers are full of enthusiasm for serving their motherland, the government still couldn't provide enough money and resources to help them achieve their design dream, so the French Air Force was still equipped with American F-84 Thunderjets and British Vampires at the beginning of the Cold War. The SNCASE company also chose to buy the production license for de Havilland Vampire fighters, naming it "Mistral".
Those early American and British designs helped the French designers learn about jet fighters, so they were able to launch a series of successful works such as the SO.4050 Vautour, MD.452 Mystère II, MD.454 Mystère IVA, and Super Mystère B.2 in the 1950s. But on the other hand, when the American F-100 Super Sabre and Soviet MiG-19 fighter entered into service in 1954 and 1955, the French Air Force only has subsonic designs, even the latest Super Mystère B.2 could only break the speed of sound in a dive, so they had to buy North American F-100D fighters in the 1950s, while the US Air Force received their first F-104A Starfighter.
But the French designers wouldn't be beaten a second time. Marcel Ferdinand Bloch, designer of the famous MB.152 piston fighter, had been captured by Germans during the Second World War because of his Jewish identity, but was saved by the US Third Army in 1945. After that, since his brother had participated with the French guerrillas during World War II and changed his name to Char D'Assaut, to commemorate his brother's achievements, Bloch also changed his name to Dassault. In 1947, Dassault company received their first order from French Air Force to build three prototype planes, and the first of them successfully flew in 1949. The duration of the entire development work was only 18 months, it was named MD.450 Ouragan fighter which was introduced into service in 1952.
Their second product, MD.452 Mystère II was based on their previous fighter design and used swept-wing to improve the flight performance. MD.454 Mystère IVA was one of the most famous products made by Dassault company during the 1950s, which was used by the Israel Air Force during the Suez Canal War in 1956 and successfully beaten the Egyptian MiG-15 fighters.
The tale of "Mirage"
In response to the challenge of the Soviet Union's new Mach 2 fighter called MiG-21 which would enter into service in 1960, Dassault's answer was the MD.550 Mystère-Delta program which was usually misunderstood by the public as a design born on the basis of the Super Mystère B.2 fighter, but in fact it was born based on an improved version of the Mystère IV fighter, and there was no direct relationship between it and the Super Mystère B.2. Initially competing with Dassault's MD.550 project were Nord 1500 Griffon, SE-212 Durandal, and SO.9050 Trident II projects, unsurprisingly, the Mystère-Delta stood out and soon received an order from the French Air Force to manufacture two prototypes.
In 1956, after the first design changes, the Mystère-Delta prototype was renamed as Mirage I fighter, it only had one air-to-air missile as its primary weapon, and only achieved Mach 1.6 during the flight test even after it opened the rocket motor. To achieve the goal of reaching Mach 2 speed in level flight, Dassault changed the main design again, including a change in fixed air intake design to the variable air intake design and introduced area rule design on the Mirage I fighter. The Mirage I design was abandoned at last, and the Mirage II fighter was a design that used Turboméca Gabizo afterburning turbojets along with a pair of the SEPR rocket motors, but it was cancelled and never built.
The final design which truly entered into service in 1961 was called Mirage III, and the first truly mass production version was called Mirage IIIC because the A version of the Mirage III family was only used for research propose, and Mirage IIIB was the training version of Mirage IIIC fighter. The basic weapon used on the Mirage IIIC fighter was two DEFA 552 30 mm cannons which could carry 250 rounds in total, also Dassault company introduced the Matra R.530 radar or infrared-guided medium-range air-to-air missile into their product, which had a maximum firing range of 18 km and maximum manoeuvring overload of 12G. The Mirage IIIC fighter could also carry two AIM-9B Sidewinder infrared-guided short-range air-to-air missile for WVR combat in the 1960s too. In 1975, the famous Matra R.550 Magic 1 infrared-guided short-range air-to-air missile with maximum manoeuvring overload of 35G successfully entered into service, both the Mirage III fighter and the Mirage F.1 fighter were upgraded to have Magic missile launch capabilities during this period.
For the ground attack role, the Mirage IIIC fighter can use unguided bombs and SNEB 68 mm rocket, also the Nord AS.20 and AS.30 radio-guided air-to-ground missiles is a good choice for the pilot though their fighter can only equip one of them under the fuselage.
As for the avionics, Mirage IIIC fighter was equipped with Cyrano I bis search and fire-control radar in the beginning, later it was upgraded to Cyrano IIA radar which improved performance. Since it entered into service in 1961, Cyrano radar suffered many technical problems, which led to the fact that the first 25 Mirage IIIC didn't receive their original fire-control radar when they entered into service, and this problem was solved later. Apart from that, the Cyrano I bis and Cyrano IIA radar only have the air-to-air capacity, the air-to-ground capability like the ground-mapping mode was added into Cyrano IIB radar which was installed into Australian Mirage IIIO fighter and latter version, besides, Mirage IIIC fighter was also one of the first western military aircraft design used Head-Up-Display in the beginning, called CSF95 which only had air-to-air capacity too, the other two is Blackburn Buccaneer and North American A-5 Vigilante attacker, and it was also one of the first European design which equipped Crouzet 20 Central Air Data Computer in the beginning too because the BAC Lightning only received its own Central Air Data Computer since the F.2A version.
The power plant of the Mirage IIIC fighter was SNECMA Atar 9B turbojet engine, also the pilot can choose to equip the SEPR 841 auxiliary rocket motor to improve the flight performance at high altitude, though they need to remove the two DEFA 552 30 mm cannons first.
Devblog
In 1952, the French government issued a specification for a lightweight, all-weather jet fighter capable of reaching supersonic speeds. Three French aircraft manufacturers responded to the call, designing new aircraft to meet the given specifications. Among them was Dassault Aviation which came up with the MD.550 Delta - a single engine delta wing design with a large vertical stabilizer and provisions for an additional propulsion system in the form of a rocket engine.
The MD.550 Delta prototype first took to the skies in June 1954. After having its flight data evaluated, the design underwent some changes and received the official name Mirage I. Subsequent test flights of the redesigned prototype showed improvements in flight performance, but Dassault quickly came to the conclusion that the aircraft was too small and light to meet the required ordnance-carrying capabilities and as such the prototype was eventually scrapped.
However, Dassault didn't want to give up on the design. Instead, the company continued developing the aircraft, quickly coming up with an enlarged and more powerful version called Mirage II. With the advent of more powerful versions of the SNECMA Atar engines in the late 1950s, the Mirage II concept was abandoned before it even left the drawing board and Dassault immediately began working on an even larger version of the aircraft around the new engines. The result of this undertaking was the creation of the Mirage III.
By this time, the aircraft had also caught the attention of the French Air Force, which motivated Dassault to proceed with further development. In November 1956, the Mirage III first took to the skies, and after a number of subsequent test flights, an order for 10 pre-production machines, designated Mirage IIIA, was issued by the French Air Force.
Following positive experiences with the pre-production machines, the military placed a further order for 95 machines of the first production version, designated Mirage IIIC. This version of the Mirage first flew in October 1960 and entered official service in 1961, remaining in service with French units until the late 1980s.
Apart from French service, the Mirage IIIC also saw extensive use with the Israeli Air Force during the Six Day War as well as the Yom Kippur War of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some of the Israeli Mirages were later on sold to Argentina, which in turn used its Mirages in the Falklands War of the 1980s.
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
Template:AirManufacturer Bloch
| 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 |
