Dassault Mirage III Australian procurement

The first Mirage III flew in 1956[2] after a period of development by General Aeronautique Marcel Dassault (GAMID) leading to a significant rise in French defence exports in the next two decades, placing France as the world’s third largest defence supplier by 1971.[3] As one of the largest deals contributing to France’s export success, the deal with Australia had a significant impact on French foreign policy, increasing the country’s influence as it succeeded to compete with the two global powers of the Cold War. The deal was equally significant for Australia which, during the 1950s, had not yet decided on an aircraft to replace the outdated CAC-27 Avon Sabre.

On the 4th of April 1957 the Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies said in his defence statement.

“Our present planning and preparations are proceeding on the basis of an operational contribution to allied strategy of highly trained men armed with the most modern conventional weapons and equipment.”[4]

Their American allies in the Vietnam War lent on them heavily to choose the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter making the choice of the French aircraft highly unexpected, especially since the French government was opposed to the war. Mirages entered service in the RAAF in 1965 and were used in a front-line role by seven RAAF units. The first 50 were built under the classification of Mirage IIIO(F) to serve in the interceptor role. The rest were designated IIIO(A) and equipped to serve in the ground attack role. The main additions of this modification were a coat of camouflage paint and the installation of the Cyrano IIB Doppler radar and altimeters.[5] When the last 10 were ordered in 1970 the Australian Government asked for two seated versions for training purposes. The specification was enabled by the removal of the Cyrano radar to make room for a second cockpit behind the original and the transfer of the avionics system to the nose. This purchase cost A$11 million and allowed the final decommission of the old Sabre trainers.[6]

A3-92 Mirage kept at the RAAF Museum

By June 1969 all of the original Mirage IIO(F) aircraft were modified to ground attack specifications.[7] The last of the Mirages were decommissioned in 1988 and placed in storage up until 1990 when they were sold to Pakistan.[8] The Mirage was not only the longest serving fighter in RAAF history, it was also the first RAAF aircraft to be able to fly at double the speed of sound.

Mirage A3-92 entered RAAF service on the 26th of July 1968 with 3 Squadron, 79 Squadron and 77 Squadron serving at Williamtown airbase in New South Wales and at Butterworth, Malaysia during the Malayan Emergency. It was kept after the end of Mirage service in the RAAF as a training aid at the RAAF School of Technical Training at Wagga Wagga and is now displayed at the RAAF Museum.[7]

In 1967 a policy shift in the French Government concerning the Middle East lead to fifty Mirages, paid for by the Israeli government, being retained and a period of tension occurred between Australia and France. As a result Israel looked to Australia for Mirage aircraft and parts manufacturing.[10] In response, the French government put caveats on the further sale of Mirage parts and ammunition to Australia, leading to a misunderstanding that the French were placing a military related embargo on Australia because of the disagreement the two countries had about the Vietnam War.[11]

This was not unfounded, as Sweden and Switzerland had already restricted the Australian use of their technology in the war, so when a rumour spread that France had instructions that no RAAF Mirages be sent to Vietnam, threatening a cessation of ammunition provision, the idea of an embargo was made more believable by the circumstances. Such speculation was officially denied by the Australian government citing that another RAAF team was already deployed assessing further Australian–French aircraft cooperation with the Dassault Mirage 2000, although plans to modify the Mirages to use spare British Aden ammunition did take place. When this was discovered it started a dispute concerning royalty payments of the Australian production of French Direction des Études et Fabrications d'Armement (DEFA) ammunition and parts and served to feed the rumours further.[12]

The Mirage III was chosen over the Lockheed F104G primarily for reasons of the American fighters being unsuitable for RAAF purposes in areas of aircraft handling, engine reliability, ferry range as well as being too expensive, too few and requiring higher quality airfields not yet constructed by Australia.[2] The Mirage, whilst not perfectly fitting for RAAF requirements itself, could be customized and was already ready to serve as a multi purpose aircraft. It was arranged that Dassault would work with the Australian air force to modify the Mirage in various ways based on the initial report from the Australian team upon assessing costs, engineering, maintenance, licence production and delivery schedule.[2]

The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) in Australia was still running its production facilities from when it was tasked with the creation of the previous Sabre aircraft and was brought into the project along with the Melbourne based Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) which had served as the Department of Aircraft Production for the Australian Government during World War II.[13] These companies would help with the manufacturing side of the customisation process of the Mirage III as an Australian contribution and were tasked with cooperating with Dassault, receiving production drawings, technical data, aircraft parts, materials and equipment from GAMID. The CAC was prepared for this manner of interaction due to its history of participating with joint aircraft projects with US and UK designs. According to the two senior Australian engineers on the project Ted Bennet and Pierce Talbot; “ the opportunity to become involved in the production of a supersonic fighter was received with great enthusiasm.”[2]

Specific parts were carefully chosen to be entirely manufactured in Australia in a strategic manner to save on costs judging by the competitive market at the time. Many of these were selected with a long term vision in mind, being the more disposable and consumable materials that would otherwise need to be purchased continually throughout the service lifetime of the aircraft. This decision was made because a trend was identified in the earlier use of aircraft by the RAAF, in which most were kept in service by spending on maintenance as long as possible rather than investing in new aircraft. This would allow Australia to manufacture replacements of those necessary parts which would wear out the fastest even after no more Mirages were produced by Dassault.[2] The most important customization choices made by the RAAF were the powerplant, avionics and weapons.[2] The British Rolls Royce Avon engine, having been proved effective serving in both the Sabre and Canberra was preferred and a Mirage IIIA with a RB146 Avon 67 turbojet engine was created and tested in February 1961. However, due to issues of expense the French Safran Aircraft Engines (SNECMA) ATAR 9C advertised in the original designs was used thereafter. The first RAAF model created, the A3-1, was handed over to Australia in 1963 and the second, the A3-2, was kept in France. These served as experimental prototypes, testing the modifications as they were implemented. Two completed aircraft packages were sent to GAF for assembly and saw the first Australian flight test in November 1963 in the A3-3 by Squadron leader Bill Collings at Avalon. The A3-16 was the first to include the chosen parts provided by the Australian manufacturers as they took over from Dassault. 60 of these aircraft were ordered by the RAAF not including 10 double seated aircraft for pilot training.[13]

• Le Roy, François, 2010. "Un marché inespéré : la vente de Mirage III à l’Australie," Histoire, économie & société, Editions NecPlus, vol. 2010(04), pages 75–83
• Fraser, M., 1965. Air fire power demonstration.
• Bombeau, B. 2001, "The early years of the delta adventure", Interavia, , pp. 22–35.
• Bellany, I. Richardson, L., 1965-1991. Australian Defence Procurement No. 8. Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence. ANU Press [Online] Available at: https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/114892/2/b10756760.pdf
• Mirage IIID – South Australian Aviation Museum. 2020. Mirage IIID – South Australian Aviation Museum. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.saam.org.au/mirage-iiid/

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dassault Mirage III in the Royal Australian Air Force.

• RAAF Mirage III history page