Dassault MIRAGE IV

In April 1957, Dassault was the winner in a contest to give France a bomber capable of nuclear attacks with atomic bombs, which would be one of the three legs of the French “Force de Frappe” (nuclear deterrent force). The program finished with the birth of the Dassault Mirage IV supersonic bomber, a bigger derivative from the Mirage-III fighter with some really outstanding features for that time. In June 1959, the Mirage IV 01 prototype took off for the first time and by September 1960 the aircraft had managed to fly at an average speed of Mach 1.60 with Mach 2.14 maximums in a 500km closed circuit. The first Mirage IV-A entered service in February 1964 and in October they were fully operational. Sixty two aircraft were built and delivered between 1964 and 1968, and in 1972, twelve aircraft were modified to carry out deep reconnaissance missions, receiving the name Mirage IV-R. In 1984, eighteen examples received improvements to be able to operate with the ASMP nuclear air launched cruise missile, conforming the Mirage IV-P variant. This variant maintained the nuclear attack capacity until 1996, when they were replaced for this role by Mirage-2000N fighter-bomber. The rest of Mirage IV-P fleet remained for reconnaissance missions until 2006 when they were finally retired from service.

MIRAGE IV gallery and more info