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The PAF Mirage ROSE Upgrade
06/22/2013
The Pakistani ROSE (Retrofit of Strike Element) Mirage
III/V remain a major asset until the JF-17 replaces them.
The Mirages have been a blessing for Pakistan, in a time
when it had very few options open. Pakistani Mirages
have served a wide range of roles, from nuclear delivery
to recon.
They have been the only fighters to support the PN with
an anti-surface capability with the Exocet. In exercises,
they have been the only fighters to defeat the vaunted
F-16s in the PAF. PAF Mirages have served a wide range
of other roles including air defence, with BVR R-Darter
missiles to deep strike with the Mirage Vs. Most
importantly, Mirages gave Pakistan the confidence to
pursue, and opportunity to build, an extensive foray into
combat aircraft manufacturing capability, that finally
culminated in the JF-17.
It is also widely believed that the ROSE Mirages will
continue to serve, along with the JF-17s post 2015. We
here look back in time to consider the Mirage and its
upgrade with the PAF.
The ROSE project was conceived in 1992 and begun on
April 1995. PAF's main concern was to replace the A-5s
that were deemed to retire in 1997. The aim was to raise
two squadrons that were capable of a surface attack
role, building a strike and precision strike capability.
PAF went on a shopping trip to thus buy and rebuild
secondhand Mirages and sources included Belgium,
Spain, France, Lebanon and Zaire. The operational
requirement was for fifty aircraft and forty aircraft were
allocated funds of $120 million. PAF personnel visited
Spain, France and Lebanon, among other countries and
inspected 96 Mirages.
SAGEM, a French company which specializes in avionics
and defense electronics, was to provide some of the
equipment for upgrading the Mirages with their inertial
navigation and system integration departments.
However, SAGEM was looking for making more and
proposed an additional forty Mirages for $150 million.
This opportunity came as a result of PAF's enthusiasm
for forty Mirage Vs and about forty Mirage IIIs of the
French Air Force, which were available for sale at quite a
reasonable price. The French Mirage V suited the PAF
requirement because of its longer range and greater
payload. PAF negotiated and the price came down
eventually to $124 million and finally to $118 million by
contract signing.
The package included thirty-four Mirage Vs and six
dual-seat Mirage IIIs, making a total of forty fully
overhauled aircraft. Out of the forty aircraft, twenty
Mirage Vs would be modernized to the ROSE-II
standards. These Mirage V ROSE-II were to receive an
identical upgrade to ROSE-I, with the difference being
that the Grifo-M radar is replaced by FLIR. The Grifo M,
somewhat of a copy of the US APG-68, provided the
Mirages with a significant improvement in look-down-
shoot down capability, and more controversially, the
ability to carry BVR missiles.
The details of the package included engines installed on
the aircraft would have a minimum life of four years and
300 hours and inclusion of ground support, alternate
mission equipment, and line replaceable units.
Additionally, kits were to be provided for RWR, CFD and
GPS.
The modifications were done in France since PAC Kamra
was during that time frame, already busy overhauling
the PAF's existing Mirages. Accepting any additional
work would have unnecessarily delayed the delivery of
the French Mirages to the PAF. However, SAGEM
encountered problems on purchase of spares, which
they needed for the timely and efficient running of their
upgrade program and the company managed to get the
first batch ready only by September 1998. A second
batch of eight was received in 1999 while the third batch
of eight came to Pakistan on 22 June 2000 and
deliveries were completed by end of 2000.
PAC Kamra, which had extensive experience in
overhauling Mirages, F-6s and F-7s, was tasked with the
work of overhauling and upgrading Mirages acquired
from Australia to the ROSE upgrade standard. Pakistan
had bought 50 Mirage IIIOs from Australia at a mere cost
of $36 million. Most of these aircraft had less than 4000
flying hours on them and they were in excellent
condition.
PAC recovered forty-five aircraft and this included seven
dual-seat models that were allotted to No. 5 Squadron.
Of the remaining, there were thirty-two with ROSE
configuration, one aircraft crashed, and another five
were considered beyond recovery.
The avionics package included Inertial Navigation
System, Heads Up Display, Airborne Video Tape
Recording System, and self-protection systems like
RWR, Chaff and Flares, essentially the same as the
SAGEM upgrades. When the United States released 360
AIM-9L missiles under the Brown Amendment, the
Mirages being upgraded and equipped with the Grifo-M
radar were also made capable of carrying the AIM-9L
missiles.
Additional equipment include, for instance, IRCCD
Forward Looking Infra Red navigation sensor for
reconnaissance applications - laser rangefinder - air
data sensors and computer - radar altimeter, and high
capacity data transfer unit . In the French upgrade, GEC
head-up display and HOTAS similar to Mirage-2000 is
used.
Pakistan also acquired South African MUPSOW, a multi-
purpose, surgical-strike weapon, designed to neutralize
enemy targets such as airfields, bunkers and command-
and-control centres at standoff ranges. Pinpoint
accuracy is achieved by using an advanced navigation
and terminal guidance technology. PAF also testing
South African Raptor I and II precision guided
munitions. PAF also uses the DART pod, which looks
identical to Rafael's LITENING pod and potentially is
acquired through South Africa. PAF is also believed to
use the R-Darter as its BVR missile for her Mirages.
Other Mirage 5F upgrades included an integrated
electronic warfare suite, on-board oxygen generation
system (OBOGS), and single point pressure refueling.
The final ROSE-III upgrade came for 14 more Mirage 5EF
by SAGEM and included new Radar Warning Receiver
(RWR);new Head-Up-Display (HUD); Forward Looking
Infra-Red (FLIR) and new mission computer (Dynamics).
