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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).

View File Angola/South West Afrika Full terrain With REDONE Campaigns Campaigns Updated! Units updated and fictional campaign issues fixed... A few sample Angolan MiG skins added! More available here at CA! Full and Final Angola and South West Afrika terrain! Also includes a few different campaigns set throughout the border war period and after. Menu screens to fit the SAAF Theme they make the name of the Sim, Strike Fighters 2 The Last Domino, after the famous SADF documentary... Also includes working FAPLA Mi-8 and Mi-24, as well as an Impalla Mk2 Stand in and Alouette III for the SAAF. Ground objects from Tiospilotos have also been included so that AAA and SAMs will show up on your install. This terrain is a Massive terrain covering most of South West Afrika with the Caprivi Strip, as well as Almost all of Angola as well as much of Botswana, some of Zambia and a small portion of the Congo. It is meant to cover the entirety of the Border War Conflict between FAPLA, SWAPO and the SADF, UNITA and SWADF. The Terrain covers many types of environments from the Skeleton Coast to the wetlands to the great plains and Bush of Ovomboland. This is meant to be a truly African terrain to fly the assortment of South African Air Force birds available here at CA. Credits: Stratos, Ludo.m54, Jeanba, Pualopanz, Coupi, recently me Spudknocker and even more recently tiospilotos. Here are links to all required aircraft thanks to Emp_Palpatine... Cheetah_E, Cheetah_C, Mirage3R2Z, Mirage3EZ, Mirage3CZ : http://combatace.com...-d-e-superpack/ MF-1AZ http://combatace.com...6-mirage-f-1az/ MF-1CZ http://combatace.com...8-mirage-f-1cz/ MF-1CZ Late http://combatace.com...age-f-1cz-late/ Buccaneer-Mk50_1980 http://combatace.com...0-saaf-for-sf2/ CanberraBI12_Late http://combatace.com...saaf-canberras/ Angolan Flogger skins in Flogger super package A note on campaigns- You may want to fly in Medium flight model mode due to the high altitude of the terrains and the limits of the SF2 AI system Happy Terrorist Hunting!! Submitter Spudknocker Submitted 07/20/2016 Category Full Terrains