Mirage IV Ideas and Inspiration

[Jeffry Fontaine]

RAAF Mirage IVO armed with a lot of 1000 pound bombs for a mission somewhere in SEA wearing the camouflage scheme seen on the Canberra. 

[GTX_Admin]

RAAF Mirage IVO armed with a lot of 1000 pound bombs for a mission somewhere in SEA wearing the camouflage scheme seen on the Canberra.

Maybe in an extended Vietnam War scenario?

[Weaver]

Another use for LGBs in anti-ship warfare come when you can get above the ceiling of the target's SAMs. I once, in a game of Harpoon, had the pleasure of "plinking" a Boris Chilikin class supply ship and it's escorting Krivak while their SA-N-4's spluttered and fell back 20,000 ft below my AV-8Bs....

2000lb LGBs are devastation in this scenario: they have about four times the warhead of typical AShMs and the hit vertically, going right down into the magazines....


Re the Mirage IV, the "standard" Whiff must surely be an RAF one with Speys, which was proposed as a "high and fast" repalcement for TSR.2.

[upnorth]

In my divided Austria alternate history, I came up with a storyline for an export version of the Mirage IV as a conventional strike platform.

I did away with the fuselage recess in favour of a redesigned lower fuselage with a series of hardpoints for pylons and moved the radar from the belly to the nose.

The removal of the recess and the relocation of the radar freed up an appreciable amount of internal volume for fuel and reduced the need for drop tanks in some mission profiles.

The revised forward fuselage provided better visibility to the crew and opened up space for newer avionics.

I felt such changes might have actually made the Mirage IV more attractive in real life as an export prospect.

Apophenia quite generously did up a couple of profiles:


I've also thought the Mirage IV might have some potential in anti-shipping, SEAD or ECM missions as well.

[Daryl J.]

Egyptian.   Then the Israelis get the F-111 to counter it.
Both withdrawn on a peace accord, retain color schemes but carry markings of country of origin.

[arc3371]

How about a Swedish Mirage IV? Sweden continues nuclear weapons project but drops the A-36?

[Daryl J.]

 :). This.

[Daryl J.]

Royal Norwegian Air Force, anti shipping or ELINT.

[Volkodav]

How about a Swedish Mirage IV? Sweden continues nuclear weapons project but drops the A-36?

Or a SAAB Draken IV, similar inconcept the Mirage IV, a larger twin engined bomber with a semi recessed nuc.

[GTX_Admin]

Hmmm...does anyone produce a 1/32 Draken?

[kitnut617]

Hmmm...does anyone produce a 1/32 Draken?

Not as off 2007 according to the PAK-20 book Greg.  2007 is the last issue before the author retired, but Jeff Garrity of Rare-Plane Detective/Nostalgic Plastic tells me he is taking in any info on corrections to the books.  I'm wondering if he will continue the work --

[jcf]

If the SAAB Draken bomber is to be twin-engined like its French counterpart, then from a modelling
standpoint I think it would be easier to Draken-ize the old Heller 1/48 Mirage IV than to turn a single
engine 1/32 Draken kit into a twin.
If such kit even existed, of course.

[elmayerle]

If the SAAB Draken bomber is to be twin-engined like its French counterpart, then from a modelling
standpoint I think it would be easier to Draken-ize the old Heller 1/48 Mirage IV than to turn a single
engine 1/32 Draken kit into a twin.
If such kit even existed, of course.

i'd argue that working with a 1/48 Draken to make a 1/72 twin-engined bomber would work, though my take on a hybrid A-36 is a F-105F/Draken cross - 1/72 and 1/48 base kits respectively (using the old Lindberg/Addams Draken kit).

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I always thought the Mirage IV would look great in RAAF markings, the ARDU "Fanta Can" scheme would look particularly fetching on it.

Great idea.  Hopefully someone will take that and create something in RAAF markings. 

Changing the nose on the Mirage IV to an actual radome instead of the IFR probe and camera ports would also be good.  Add an IFR probe from the Tornado somewhere near the cockpit area and adapt the radome from another Mirage variant to fit up front.  The other radome on the underside of the fuselage would also need to be removed to free up space for more fuel and external stores such as the stores pylons mounted on the fuselage of the Panavia Tornado.  With all of that space under the Mirage IV you could spread them out a little more so you could have all three in use at the same time. 

[finsrin]

Radome and air-to-air missiles to be a long range interceptor to deal with Russian and Chinese bombers and maritime patrol aircraft.
Can pack Harpoon and Tomahawk and ? for attack missions.

[upnorth]

Radome and air-to-air missiles to be a long range interceptor to deal with Russian and Chinese bombers and maritime patrol aircraft.

That almost sounds like a Western answer to the Tupolev Tu-128 "Fiddler"

[finsrin]

Radome and air-to-air missiles to be a long range interceptor to deal with Russian and Chinese bombers and maritime patrol aircraft.

That almost sounds like a Western answer to the Tupolev Tu-128 "Fiddler"

Yes, thatz it.  Couldn't remember the designation.
Wonder what happend to them - like date of last flight?  Don't think therez any kits of the Tu-128 !

[Weaver]

I think there's an A-Monster kit of the Tu-128, but be prepared for the damage it'll do to a) your wallet and b) your back....

[upnorth]

Radome and air-to-air missiles to be a long range interceptor to deal with Russian and Chinese bombers and maritime patrol aircraft.

That almost sounds like a Western answer to the Tupolev Tu-128 "Fiddler"

Yes, thatz it.  Couldn't remember the designation.
Wonder what happend to them - like date of last flight?  Don't think therez any kits of the Tu-128 !

Most references give 1990 as the retirement date of Russia's remaining "Fiddler" fleet. The AA-5 "Ash" missile that was peculiar to it was retired at the same time.

The MiG-31 "Foxhound" replaced the Tupolev in several units during the 1980s.

[kitnut617]

Yes, thatz it.  Couldn't remember the designation.
Wonder what happend to them - like date of last flight?  Don't think therez any kits of the Tu-128 !

According to the PAK-20 book, you should really be looking at Tu-28/128.

In 1/72 scale there's; Cramer-Craft, Elliot, Leoman, Sanger (Contrail) and A-Model

[Jeffry Fontaine]

What about an internal weapons bay where the original recessed area was located for the nuclear device?  With the removal of the bombing/navigation radar just ahead of this the space could then be allocated to fuel and equipment that may need to be moved from between the engines.  The weapons bay would not be very deep (think of something like that found on the TSR.2), just enough room for two to four 1000 pound class general purpose bombs depending on configuration.

[GTX_Admin]

I love the idea of a Mirage IV heavy interceptor.  Maybe arm with boosted Matra R.530s?

[GTX_Admin]

I seem to recal a certain Sentinel Chicken doing some alternate Mirage IV profiles ...maybe he will be able to repost them here.

Speaking of which:

[GTX_Admin]

And one from Jeremy:

[GTX_Admin]

And finally, just a nice photo: