The Air Force and the Strategic Air Forces held a ceremony at the Istres Air Base to celebrate the end of the Mirage 2000N career. The “nuclear” version of the Mirage 2000 will carry out its last flights during the summer. There remain a dozen aircraft in the squadron 2/4 “Lafayette” which will be gradually transferred to Chateaudun to be dismantled. Part of the pieces of these aircraft, such as the half-wings, will be used on the Mirage 2000 aircraft remaining in service. The Mirage 2000N entered service in 1988. This two-seat version of the Dassault Aviation Delta Fighter was designed for nuclear deterrence. Being able to carry the ASMP and ASMPA missiles, the Mirage 2000N had a powerful terrain monitoring system allowing it to perform low altitude penetrations. The Mirage 2000N was also able to carry conventional weaponry which enabled it to participate in several external operations: “Kestrel” and “Deliberate Force” in former Yugoslavia in 1994-1995 where a plane was shot down, “Harmattan” in Libya in 2011, and more recently “Chammal” in the Levant and “Barkhane” in the Sahel. The last Mirage 2000N deployed returned last April from this operation.
