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tiopilotos
Atlas Giraffe fighter aircraft program
By 1984 SADF thought that Cheetah aircraft which was then under develpoment would not be ready to conduct operations on the ongoing border war. Atlas officials estimated that Cheetah will make its first flight sometime in 1985 with possible introduction to service date sometime in 1987 for the Cheetah E. The latter was regarded by many observers as an interim solution before Cheetah C become operational sometime in the early 90s. Cheetah E was actually a Mirage IIIEZ airframe conversion with some upgrades applied. It was fitted with a relatively simple avionics suite and radar but retained Atar 9C-3 engine. SADF decided that while avionics were good enough to counter FAPLA MiG-23s, lack of medium range air to air missile capability and engine performance were critical problems. With international embargo still active, South Africans decided to launch a parallel program code named "Giraffe".
Giraffe's goal was to acquire/produce a small number of relatively modern fighters with BVR capability and newer engines at low cost within minimum time so that the first airframes enter service the same time with Cheetah. There was no budget nor time for development of a completely new aircraft so the Giraffe team inside Atlas took into account that SAAF was already very familiar with French aviation technology so they decided to apply upgrades to existing aircrafts. Atlas officials came up with the idea that the RDM radar (with ground mode removed) and the M53-5 engine of the early Mirage 2000C could be acquired and fitted to older Mirage IIICZs. Also Giraffe team gained some access to early stage of Rafale program. On January 1985 development team presented to government and SADF the characteristics of the upgraded prototype which would be ready to make its first flight as soon as possible. The aircraft should be able to accelerate fast, carry at least 2 medium range AAMs and 2 short range AAMs, detect/track fighter size targets at 50/25 nautical miles, use defensive countermeasures and finally eqquiped with an internal jammer. RDM and M53-5 would be delivered through third countries while the medium range Super 530F missile would be acquired in secret cooperation with France. Short range AAM would be the domestic V3C Darter. The first flight was estimated to take place sometime in September 1985.
On May 1985 with the Cheetah on development stage and with the increase of military expenditures due to the ongoing conflict on Southern Angola, government prioritized Cheetah program as more important and terminated Giraffe. An artistic representation of how Giraffe could look like was published on Air International magazine (with little help from AI).
By ludo.m54
By tiopilotos