Like the F-16, French Mirage 2000-5 fighters are good planes, but they aren’t the best Western jets for Ukraine

Like the F-16, the Mirage 2000s are combat-proven aircraft, having flown sorties in conflicts across the Middle East and in the Balkans.

The 2000-5 variant, which is what France has promised to send Ukraine, first flew in 1990 and, compared to previous versions of the aircraft, features an upgraded radar system. The jet can be equipped with air-to-surface and air-to-air missiles, as well as laser-guided bombs.

Macron told French broadcasters on Thursday that the pilot training will begin this summer and take place in France. The program typically lasts around five to six months, he said, and an undisclosed number of Mirage jets will be transferred to Ukraine following the completion of that training.

Under normal conditions, the French Mirage 2000-5 would be perfectly suitable for a country like Ukraine, but that’s just not the situation right now, Justin Bronk, an airpower and technology expert at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, told Business Insider.

The effectiveness of the Mirage 2000-5 is primarily limited by the MICA beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, which has a much shorter range than the AIM-120 AMRAAM variants that Kyiv could use with its F-16s, Bronk said.

Like the F-16, the French fighter jet’s effectiveness, he said, will ultimately come down to how it’s used and whether Kyiv can strike inside Russian territory. Last month, Macron said Ukraine should be allowed to use Western weapons to do so, a stance more NATO countries are taking.

“It’s very difficult to try to win and succeed in the campaign when you’re largely stuck to defense,” Birkey said.

A fighter designed for the Ukraine war

Air warfare experts like Bronk have argued throughout the conflict in Ukraine that the most suitable Western combat aircraft for Ukrainian forces would be Sweden’s JAS 39 Gripen.

Built by Swedish defense and aerospace firm Saab, the Gripen is a 4.5-generation multi-role fighter aircraft that has been in production since the 1980s.

The Swedish fighter jet was designed with the idea of a dispersed fighter force taking on Russia without having the benefits of being in NATO and facing a very dangerous surface-to-air missile threat. Essentially, it was designed for the exact conditions in which Ukraine is fighting.

Sweden’s Gripen is considered by experts to be a highly capable, effective, and efficient fighter. It is relatively inexpensive to operate, easy to maintain, and requires less runway space than some other aircraft for taking off and landing.

The jet also features advanced electronic-warfare capabilities that were specifically designed to be able to counter the radars on Russian aircraft and ground-based air-defense systems.

“French combat aircraft — brilliant fighter jets that, under the control of Ukrainian pilots, will prove that Europe is stronger,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a Friday speech to France’s National Assembly, referring to the Mirages.

Until these aircraft arrive, though, Ukraine will have to continue making do with its Soviet-era fleet. For Kyiv, any Western deliveries may prove valuable — regardless of the type of aircraft.

“The best fighter they can get are the ones they can get,” Birkey argued. “It still remains that.”

France’s announcement on its plans to send Mirage fighters comes as Kyiv’s partners step up their support for the country in the wake of Russia’s new offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Macron on Thursday also revealed plans to train and equip a brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers, which will be a significant development and a notable break from some previous training schemes.

“One of the biggest problems that Ukraine is currently facing is a lack of training capacity, particularly the capacity to train at a larger unit level, so battalions and brigades, rather than companies and smaller,” Bronk said.

Instead of offering lots of short courses for smaller numbers of troops — a strategy that showed its limitations during Kyiv’s failed counteroffensive last summer because it didn’t generate officers — the French plan offers a way for Ukrainian troops to train as a unified formation with standardized equipment, Bronk said.

That, he added, “is an incredibly useful and an incredibly well-thought-out way of increasing and stabilizing long-term support. That’s really potentially impactful.”