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Footage from the French movie "Sky Fighters".
The part from 1:40 to 1:50 is awesome, with that mirage flying under the Airbus plane!!
Doesnt the air flow over the bigger plane mess with the airflow over the smaller jet's surfaces?
To some extend it does specially if its a Mirage of all the planes. The 340 must be going at a very low speeds so they could do a manu like that.
I always wanted Pakistan to have the Mirage 2K to replace our III's and V's. Despite the fact that it is fielded by our arch nemesis, it's a beautiful bird...reminds me of our JF-17
I wonder why PAF didn't go for it?
* Between late 1990 and 1993, it (PAF) evaluated and rejected the British Tornado, took a close look at the Mirage 2000E, and received a misleading offer from Poland for the supply of MiG-29s and Su-27s. In 1992, the PAF revived an 11-year-old proposal to acquire 20-40 Mirage 2000s, but Paris was reluctant to sell a fully capable version for political reasons. A possible alternative appeared in August 1994, when Sweden's SAAB conglomerate offered to supply its JAS-39 Grippen aircraft, but the deal was killed because of its 20 per cent American component content.
* Meanwhile, France had offered the Mirage 2000-V and upon re-evaluation, the PAF concluded that the model incorporated the technological jump that it had been looking for. The French offer was not based upon the PAF's operational requirement vis-a-vis its operational deployment in the event of war, but Paris agreed to remove the plane's deficiencies. The negotiations began to become unstuck when it came to the price tag of $3 billion for 32 aircraft, a figure that shot up to $4.1 billion when the cost of a 10-12 year financing package was included. The PAF continued to press for the technical package, but had to combat both tough French negotiating tactics and the Pakistan Government's reluctance to pay for such a large purchase. The deal was ultimately killed in late 1996 by the caretaker government of Malik Meraj Khalid, who was scared off by a distorted media campaign against the Mirage acquisition.
* During this difficult period, the PAF had little option but to take steps to maintain its fleet size and operational capability.
* This involved the induction of additional F-7 aircraft from China and the launch of two major upgrade programmes, the most important involving the upgrade and overhaul of existing Mirage III and Vs, as well as F-7s, A-5s and T-37 basic trainer aircraft. The PAF is currently taking delivery of 40 upgraded Mirage III and V aircraft under a $118 million contract finalised in February 1996.
* This followed the procurement of 50 mothballed Mirages from Australia under a A$27 million deal finalised in April 1990, from which a total of 45 aircraft have been recovered, upgraded and inducted into the PAF.