How come the Mirage-2000 failed to penetrate Western markets? (3 Viewers)

[Nodeo-Franvier]

Mirage-2000 was relatively successful commercially

But aside from France and Greece it's failed to establish itself in Westerns airforce

Even previous user of Mirage III/F1 like Australia or Spain rejected the Mirage 2000

 

[taly01]

Australia was "lucky" to get Mirages as it is firmly in the US military sphere of influence.

As an Australian I should know more about them, but one criticism was that they had too short range for Australia's long distances.

 

[Frog]

Australia was "lucky" to get Mirages as it is firmly in the US military sphere of influence.

As an Australian I should know more about them, but one criticism was that they had too short range for Australia's long distances.

They plane they had to replace was the F-86. Some of the reasons of its adoption were that the Mirage III O was less complex to maintain and was more compatible with Australia's airfields than the F-104.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Mirage-2000 was relatively successful commercially

But aside from France and Greece it's failed to establish itself in Westerns airforce

Even previous user of Mirage III/F1 like Australia or Spain rejected the Mirage 2000

Perhaps it comes down to what Dassault and the French government want to sell more of, with both the 2000 and Rafale overlapped until the end of 2000 production in 2007. Where the Mirage 2000 hasn't found success Dassault's Rafale often has, with sales to Egypt, Qatar, India, Greece, Croatia, Indonesia, Serbia, UAE, and strong interest from Bangladesh, Colombia and Iraq. India may prefer the Rafale over the 2000 since both the Indian Air Force and Naval Air Arm will both operate variants of the Rafale. A big win for the 2000 outside of the developing world was Taiwan.

As for Western Airforces, most have their own industries. Even here in Canada we have Boeing and Lockheed-Martin that support the RCAF procurements. Nevertheless, I would have loved to have seen the Mirage 4000 in RCAF service. Had Canada bought the Mirage 4000 as a replacement for its CF-101, CF-104 and CF-116 this may have driven other interest and saved the program from cancellation.

I have to think the Mirage 4000 would have been nearly the ideal single-seat long range interceptor for Canada's 1980-onwards NORAD role, plus sufficient for the NATO/UN strike role.