Dassault Mirage 5

The Dassault Mirage 5 is a single‑engine, supersonic fighter‑bomber developed by France’s Dassault Aviation in the early 1960s as a simplified, ground‑attack variant of the celebrated Mirage III. First flown on 27 June 1965, the aircraft entered service with the Israeli Air Force in 1967 and quickly spread to more than a dozen nations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and South America. Structurally, the Mirage 5 retains the delta wing, low‑drag fuselage and afterburning SNECMA Atar 9C turbojet of its predecessor, but sheds the complex radar package in favor of a larger internal fuel capacity and a more powerful avionics suite optimized for visual and laser‑guided weapons. Its clean aerodynamic layout allows a top speed exceeding Mach 2.2 and a combat radius of roughly 1,200 kilometres, while hardpoints under the wings and fuselage can carry air‑to‑ground rockets, bombs, missiles and, in later upgrades, precision‑guided munitions. The Mirage 5’s ruggedness, low operating cost and ease of maintenance made it a staple of frontline squadrons for three decades, influencing the design of later multirole jets such as the Mirage F1 and cementing Dassault’s reputation for producing versatile, export‑friendly combat aircraft.

Dassault Aviation

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