Interestingly, the air force of Ecuador now operates both the J-79 Kfir C10 and the ATAR 9K50 Cheetah C.

Be nice to know what their impressions are.

Noticeable below is the longer Cheetah C fuselage (cockpit in front of air intake) and it’s neater air refueling probe.

A very debatable call. I’ll stick with the Kfir. J79 bestows greater wet thrust (17900lb v 15873lb) higher speed (1516mph v 1460mph) and greater weapons load. Not at all sur on the range, but the Kfir’s combat rad of 477nm is not too bad. But again, a very worthy debate. Maybe a new thread should be started?

It is debatable I suppose.

Just that the J-79 in the Mirage III airframe as the Kfir was not, initially anyway, a match made in heaven. Fatter, heavier, and needed extensive revising of the cooling situation, not the least of which was additional scoops.

Certainly initially, there were performance losses, with some Israeli pilots lamenting it’s performance compared to their Mirage C’s and Neshers with the lower powered ATAR 09C. It is worth pointing out that the later ATAR 9K50 and J-79 have pretty much the same twr.

When looking at an engine for the Kfir, the ATAR 9K50, Spey, and J-79 were all considered.

The J-79 won out primarily due to maintenance and spares inventory, as the F-4 Phantom was used in large numbers by Israel, and military credits could also be availed of.

Cheetah C and Kfir both have a similar theoretical max load too, although to emphasise, it is theoretical.

Are those V3B or Magic?

They wouldn’t be Magics, as they were long gone by 1992, as far as I know.

As far as I can tell, the Magic was last fired in anger in 1987, where one was launched by a Mirage F1CZ against a Mig-23.

I think by 1988 they were taken out of service, but I stand under correction.

Did any IIIs ever get an M53? Or RD33?

Pakistan.

How are Pakistan currently finding the two aircraft, performance wise?;)

Thanks for the info. Kinda sad to see what has become of the SAAF in the last 17 years or so…….

They are operating on a much reduced budget, much like many airforces worldwide.

Still, South Africa spends considerably less than the global average on defence, as a proportion of GDP.

That is the big factor that will need to change.

On the local BVRAAM:

In addition to the A-Darter, the company has a project to develop a new radar-guided, beyond-visual-range AAM (BVRAAM), currently known as the B-Darter. This will be based on ten years of investment since the deployment of South Africa’s last indigenous BVRAAM, the V4.

Central to this project has been the development of powerful radar technology compact enough to fit into the airframe of a BVRAAM. (Denel Dynamics has confirmed that this technology will be directly employed for the seeker head of the radar-guided version of the Umkhonto.)

“We are ready to produce a BVRAAM demonstrator,” affirms Wilson. “But we need an investment partner for full-scale industrial development, like on the A-Darter. At home, we need government support and a user requirement from the SAAF.”

The proposed B-Darter would probably have a maximum range greater than 80 km. “Our target is to be in the middle of the market –medium range and medium cost,” she asserts.

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/south-african-missile-company-provides-sandf-and-friendly-countries-with-force-multipliers-2011-08-26

It’s called B-Darter, and it looks like it will share a radar seeker, or rather the technology, that was developed for the Radar Umkhonto ER. Even recently, it was mentioned that it may yet be a ramjet.
Then of course, it may just look similar to the Umkhonto R, of which there are pictures out there.

This deployment has highlighted the need for a lifter better than the C-130.
This was the original force behind selecting the Airbus A400M.
It needed to take a Rooivalk or an Oryx as a load, and deploy over a certain range without the need to refuel.

This is why the recent Lockheed proposals for new C-130’s, or projects such as the EMBRAER KC390 are unlikely to succeed, certainly for that specified role.

Recently, C-17 were offered, but unless the defence budget is increased properly, this will not happen.

I suspect the A-400M will be back in the picture sooner or later.

IRIS-T only? No a2g munitions?

No idea.

I can only see that they deployed with underwing tanks and the IRIS-T.

The Il-76 and An-125 flights may of course be bringing those Paveways.

The Gripen certainly wouldn’t self deploy with them.

There are rumours also going around that a couple of Rooivalk combat helicopters are being deployed, although, as said earlier, there is no confirmation of this of yet.