dave-r wrote:I think they replaced the Mirage III aircraft that were a bit of a nuisance in the Falklands war against Argentina.
Apples to apples, the Sea Harrier started duty in 1978, and was just a bit more modern that the 17-year-old Mirage III at the time. Both planes are totally different. The Mirage is a fast and heavy plane, the Harrier a slow and very nimble plane.
The Mirage could not slow down enough to effectively fight the Harriers, which carried missiles faster than the Mirages. Oops!
2 Mirages were shot (one in a fight, the other by Argentina's own ground defenses when the plane returned damaged from a mission). Other losses were called Daggers, the first unlicensed knockoff of the Mirage III built by Israel (which could not buy them anymore after invading Lebanon). Israel only used them for 4 years before phasing them out in 1975, I guess that says something about the quality... Those planes had no radar, they were solely built for ground attack (and Israel probably could not steal the plans for the Mirage 5 radar).
Having no radar in a fight, well, that's not good.
The Mirage III was active (in France) from 1961 until 1994.
The Mirage F1 started duty (in France) in 1973 and will be completely phased out in 2013/2014.
The Mirage 2000 is not scheduled for retirement yet.
The Rafale started duty in 2001.