Forbes: Ukraine Can Create New Mirage 2000 Bomber Brigade
- 9.10.2024, 8:26
Strikes on warships, headquarters and supply depots of the Russian Federation will intensify.
Ukraine may receive Mirage 2000 fighter jets in the first quarter of 2025. These jets will be equipped with new means of destruction for striking ground targets and electronic warfare systems. Forbes reports that the Ukrainian forces will arm their French aircraft with the same French ammunition that is already installed on the old Soviet MiG-29, Su-24, and Su-27 combat aircraft: SCALP-EG cruise missiles and Hammer glide bombs.
The publication notes that the Mirage 2000, armed to accurately attack ground targets at a distance of up to 155 miles, will strengthen the existing Ukrainian Air Force base, which consists of a Su-24 with a rotary wing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine inherited about 200 such aircraft of the 1970s. Now the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade still had about 12 two-seat twin-engine bombers.
During the full-scale invasion, the Russians shot down at least 18 old bombers, most of them at the beginning of the war, before the bombers switched to the use of long-range ammunition. According to journalists, Ukraine is now showing "resolute efforts to identify the Su-24 in different warehouses and restore them to flight condition." We have to recall pilots and navigators from retirement so that they get behind the wheel.
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine clearly plan to keep the Su-24 in operation in the near future. They are even developing a new locally produced glide bomb to give the bombers more weapons options,” the newspaper notes.
According to journalists, France could well equip the Air Forces of Ukraine with a couple of dozen Mirage 2000-5 aircraft until 2025. The publication notes that they can enter the use of a new brigade, which "will fight side by side with the battle-hardened 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade. This will strengthen the deep strikes of the Ukrainian AF on Russian warships, air defence batteries, headquarters and supply depots in the occupied territory of the south and east of Ukraine."