The Dassault Mirage 2000C followed on from a successful line of French fighters. It was an effective example of the ‘light-weight’ fighters developed in the 1970s and made possible by new generation aviation electronics.

In the 1950s Dassault produced one of the world’s great fighters, the Mirage III.

In the 1960s Dassault moved on to the Mirage F.1 which was also extremely popular and entered service with a number of air forces.

However, by the 1970s governments and air forces around the world had become concerned about how heavy and expensive fighters were becoming and the concept of the ‘light-weight’ fighter became popular.

Several light weight fighters resulted including a new version of the Mirage. Within 27 months of project launch the first Mirage 2000 flew in December 1975 and the first ones entered service with the French air force in 1984.

This model represents a standard French Mirage 2000C.

Airfix 1/72 kit. Completed in February 2001.