Mirage F1.

This is coolbert:

I found this item to be somewhat surprising.

French Mirage F1 fighter plane [MRCA] a goodly number [!] purchased by an American PRIVATE concern. DACT the purported mission. Dissimilar Air Combat Training. DACT.

DACT better known in the U.S. as "Aggressor" and "Top Gun".

Thanks to the Aviation Geek Club Internet web site for the article.

"ATAC HAS BOUGHT 63 MIRAGE F1 FIGHTER JETS"

"Sixty-three warplanes a portion of which [appaently] will be used to create a smaller [but still significant] number of operational aircraft."

"Between 30 and 45 Mirage F1 fighters will be refurbished to fly again as adversaries against U.S. military aircraft"

"As it was reported last month by several media outlets American company Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC) had bought 63 ex-French Mirage F1 fighters for 21 million euros [$25 million USD]."

Between 30 and 45 aircraft will be refurbished to fly again as adversaries against U.S. military aircraft. Warplanes retired from the French inventory still for some time in the future useful!

Nice image of a Mirage F1 with French markings. Courtesy the image Tim Felce (Airwolfhound) and Adrian Pingstone (Arpingstone) (Own work).

That cost of  $25 million USD works out to a cool $400,000 USD/warplane. A bargain. These planes will also retain some sort of on-call combat capability? That remains to be seen.

Furthermore, if and when that number of about forty-eight Mirage F1 able to take to the skies that number about equal to the entire Royal Air Force [British] air combat warplane inventory as is presently available!

coolbert.