"Last flight of the Mirage 2000" Topic

Brazil's Mirage 2000 fleet takes it's last flight.

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To be "temporarily" (cof, cof) substituted by the F-5.

Remember: this a country that still uses the Madsen machinegun, built in 1902….

No. It's a country where a single museum piece Madsen was utilised by a State police force (PMERJ). None of the armed forces use the Madsen so I'm not quite sure what your point is.

The Mirages and F-5 are to be replaced by Gripen. Brazil will receive about a dozen leased Gripen for in service familiarisation before receiving new build 36 Gripen NG.

The F-5s are heavily upgraded anyhow and actually have flight hours remaining on the air frames unlike the M2000s which were second hand "temporary" replacements for Mirage IIIs.

Hey… don't worry.. we ( Argentina ) just bought many of those M-2000… Chris is always making smart decisions or acting like a child complaining about the falklands…

Francisco

Brazil is currently a heavy weight boxer wearing giant foam gloves, considering the size of that country and it's new found wealth it's severely under endowed on the world stage when it comes to military capability

Actually there are better and far more pressing things to spend the money on, to be honest. Education, public health, infrastructure, poverty alleviation and other social programs etc. The navy is currently due tonget the lion's share of funding for new equipment.

Still, when it comes to football…. :-)

Francisco, I was in BsAs in November. I wouldn't worry too much about Cristina. Judging by the number of brasileiros staying in my hotel, in the shoping malls and along Florida Street, you will soon be owned by Brasil. Trust me, you'll be much happier, not only will you get a functioning economy for the first time you might even get to experience what it feels like to win a World Cup. ;-)

hey hey… we've won two already and our cousins have done just bad in previous engagements.. being owned by Brazil does not sound like much of an improvement… if anything Chile and Uruguay are much better prospects…

Oh yes, I quite forgot. When was the last one? 1986? Still it's not that bad, you did win the Confederations Cup in '92, so it's only been 22 years since Argentina hoisted a significant piece of silverware.

Look at the other benefits. We have electricity and air conditioning here.

Seldon,

Has she bought the Brazilian Mirage 2000s? I know she recently bought around 20 ex-Spanish Mirage F1E – might it be those aircraft you're thinking of? Cheers.

I've also only heard Argies were meant to be getting some ex-Spanish Mirage F1s (though some stupid website posted pics of M2000s).

However the sale has been at least delayed and if not cancelled due to French refusing to provide support as they now want to offload some of their surplus F1s to Argentina and also apparently due to Spaniards refusing to overhaul the aircraft.

This leaves the Argies with a handful of Mirage III/Vs which spend most of their time grounded as their only supersonic interceptors.

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Yes.. I was joking because she seems to be looking for good deals everywhere… :) The fact is that even if Uruguay wanted to invade Argentina there is probably not much we could do :(

Electricity and air conditioning :), yes the bar is set pretty low right now, and it probably will stay like that for a while…

When it comes to futbol, as I said you guys haven't been doing too well in the greatest game either, just make sure you don't screw this one up like we did with Copa America, you don't want another Maracanaso …

In any case I've taken the better path.. I became a Texan :) "They can all go to hell, I'm going to Texas"… :)

Brazil needs a big military like a fish needs a bicycle. We have many more pressing needs than arms and, seriously, any possible major threat would be telegraphed years in advance.

I doubt we'll see the grippens any time soon, given that this process has already taken some two decades…

But the madsen is an excellent example of how material here soldiers on well past its projected use life. If you want to see the Brazilian arms procurement system in miniature, visit the Fort Copacabana artillery museum. There are late victorian pieces on display there that you'll see nowhere else.

So in the end I was right and futbol was not a good enough reason to adopt the green-yellow flag… In the end our boys did better :) … my warning did become a terrible omen !

Nevertheless I shall continue with my plan to become a full Texan :)

Surprised they've retired them so soon.

Brazil is a real paradox, e.g. a country with a lot of resources and potential (my teachers were saying that 40 years ago), and yet still pretty backwards, and 3rd world in many ways as well, e.g. high crime, lots of poverty, etc..

Apparently, 90% of its roads are still made of dirt, but it is sitting on a trillion dollar offshore oil cache (as of the 2012 report I saw recently).

Planes do have a designed lifespan. F16s were intended to have 8,000 hours of flight, for example.

So it makes sense that the Mirages have finally hit their 'need *lots* of expensive structural work to remain in flying condition' mark and are being retired/sold off.