1.
Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia
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The Royal Saudi Arabian Armed Forces consists of the Saudi Arabian Army, the Royal Saudi Air Force, the Royal Saudi Navy, the Royal Saudi Air Defense, and the Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force. In addition the Saudi Arabian National Guard, which is one of the three branches of the Joint Forces of the Kingdom. The national guard is under the control of the Ministry of National Guard, instead of the Ministry of Defence, the Saudi Arabian Royal Guard. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has one of the defence forces in the Middle East. The kingdom spends 25% of its budget, or about $88 billion, on its military, in terms of manpower, Saudi Arabia has about 688,000 active personnel in its military, with 300,000 army troops. Saudi Arabia also has more than 200,000 men in its national guard and 25,000 tribal levies, the navy has about 60,000 members, air defense forces and strategic rocket forces about 40,000 soldiers. In addition to the air forces with more than 63,000 active employees, also there is an intelligence service. The Saudi Arabian National Guard is not a reserve but a fully operational force, and originated out of Abdul Azizs tribal military-religious force. Its modern existence, however, is attributable to it being effectively Abdullahs private army since the 1960s and, crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz was Saudi Arabias Minister of Defence and Aviation from 1962 to 2011. The vice minister, Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, was his full brother and his oldest son, Khalid bin Sultan, was appointed assistant minister in 2001 and was in office until April 2013. In 1987, members of the air force, army, and navy are mainly recruits from groups of people without a strong identity from the Nejd tribal system, spending on defense and security has increased significantly since the mid-1990s and was about US$67 billion in 2013. Saudi Arabia ranks among the top five nations in the world in government spending for its military and its modern, high-technology arsenal makes Saudi Arabia among the worlds most densely armed nations, with its military equipment being supplied primarily by the United States, France, and Britain. According to SIPRI, in 2010–14 Saudi Arabia became the second largest arms importer. Major imports in 2010–14 included 45 combat aircraft from the UK,38 combat helicopters from the USA,4 tanker aircraft from Spain and over 600 armoured vehicles from Canada. Saudi Arabia has a long list of outstanding orders for arms, including 27 more combat aircraft from the UK,154 combat aircraft from the USA, the United States sold more than $80 billion in military hardware between 1951 and 2006 to the Saudi military. In comparison, the Israel Defense Forces received $53.6 billion in U. S. military grants between 1949 and 2007. On 20 October 2010, U. S. State Department notified Congress of its intention to make the biggest arms sale in American history—an estimated $60.5 billion purchase by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The package represented an improvement in the offensive capability of the Saudi armed forces
2.
Royal Saudi Air Force
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The Royal Saudi Air Force, is the aviation branch of the Saudi Arabian armed forces. The RSAF has developed from a defensive military force into one with an advanced offensive capability. The RSAF maintains the third largest fleet of F-15s after the American, the backbone of the RSAF is currently the Boeing F-15 Eagle, with the Panavia Tornado also forming a major component. The Tornado and many aircraft were delivered under the Al Yamamah contracts with British Aerospace. The RSAF ordered various weapons in the 1990s, including Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles, laser-guided bombs, al-Salam, a successor to the Al Yamamah agreement will see 72 Eurofighter Typhoons delivered by BAE. The RSAF was formed in the mid-1920s with British assistance and it was re-organized in 1950 and began to receive American assistance from 1952 including the use of Dhahran Airfield by the United States Air Force. The Saudi forces are equipped with mainly western hardware, main suppliers are companies in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Both the UK and the US are involved in training programs conducted in Saudi Arabia, during the 1980s and 1990s, by Middle Eastern standards the armed forces of Saudi Arabia were relatively small. Its strength however was derived from advanced technology, aircraft training is executed on the Pilatus PC-9, BAe Hawk, Boeing F-15D Eagle and the Northrop F-5F Tiger II. The C-130 Hercules is the mainstay of the fleet and the Hercules is assisted by CASA CN-235s. Reconnaissance is performed by 17 Squadron with its RF-5E and the Boeing E-3A is the Airborne Early Warning platform operated by 18 Squadron. The VIP support fleet consists of a variety of civil registered aircraft such as the Boeing 707,737 and 747, Lockheed Tri-Stars, MD11s. Nonetheless, the RSAF announced its intention to purchase the Typhoon from BAE Systems in December 2005, on 18 August 2006 a memorandum of understanding was signed for 72 aircraft in a GB£6–10 billion deal. Following this order, the investigation of the Al Yamamah contract was suppressed by the British Prime minister Tony Blair in December 2006, on 17 September 2007 Saudi Arabia announced it had signed a £4. 4bn deal with BAE Systems for 72 Typhoons. On 29 December 2011, the United States signed a $29.4 billion deal to sell 84 F-15s in the SA configuration, the sale includes upgrades for the older F-15s up to the SA standard and related equipment and services. On 23 May 2012, British defence firm BAE Systems is to sell 22 BAE Hawk advanced jet aircraft to the Royal Saudi Air Force for a total of £1.9 billion. The deal also includes simulators, ground and training equipment and spares, on April 2013, British defence firm BAE Systems delivers the first two new Typhoons of 24 to Saudi Arabia. In 2013, the USAF tendered for security services to protect the Saudi air force from Cyberwarfare, on 12 August 2009, UPI reported that Saudi Arabia was seeking upgrades for their E-3 fleet and aerial refuelling tanker aircraft
3.
Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago
4.
Runway
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According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a runway is a defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft. Runways may be a surface or a natural surface. Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally the magnetic azimuth of the heading in decadegrees. This heading differs from true north by the magnetic declination. A runway numbered 09 points east, runway 18 is south, runway 27 points west, when taking off from or landing on runway 09, a plane would be heading 90°. A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each separately, e. g. runway 33 in one direction is runway 15 when used in the other. The two numbers usually differ by 18, Runway Zero Three Left becomes Runway Two One Right when used in the opposite direction. In some countries, if parallel runways are too close to each other, at large airports with four or more parallel runways some runway identifiers are shifted by 10 degrees to avoid the ambiguity that would result with more than three parallel runways. For example, in Los Angeles, this results in runways 6L, 6R, 7L. At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, there are five parallel runways, named 17L, 17C, 17R, 18L, for clarity in radio communications, each digit in the runway name is pronounced individually, runway three six, runway one four, etc. A leading zero, for example in runway zero six or runway zero one left, is included for all ICAO, however, most U. S. civil aviation airports drop the leading zero as required by FAA regulation. This also includes some military airfields such as Cairns Army Airfield and this American anomaly may lead to inconsistencies in conversations between American pilots and controllers in other countries. It is very common in a such as Canada for a controller to clear an incoming American aircraft to, for example, runway 04. In flight simulation programs those of American origin might apply U. S. usage to airports around the world, for example, runway 05 at Halifax will appear on the program as the single digit 5 rather than 05. Runway designations change over time because the magnetic poles slowly drift on the Earths surface, depending on the airport location and how much drift takes place, it may be necessary over time to change the runway designation. As runways are designated with headings rounded to the nearest 10 degrees, for example, if the magnetic heading of a runway is 233 degrees, it would be designated Runway 23. If the magnetic heading changed downwards by 5 degrees to 228, if on the other hand the original magnetic heading was 226, and the heading decreased by only 2 degrees to 224, the runway should become Runway 22. Because the drift itself is slow, runway designation changes are uncommon
5.
Closed city
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A closed city or closed town is a settlement where travel or residency restrictions are applied so that specific authorization is required to visit or remain overnight. They may be sensitive military establishments or secret research installations which require more space or freedom than is available in a conventional military base. There may also be a variety of permanent residents including close family members of workers or trusted traders who are not directly connected with its clandestine purposes. Closed cities are a feature of heavily militarized countries and secretive regimes, in modern Russia, such places are officially known as closed administrative-territorial formations. Sometimes closed cities may only be represented on classified maps which are not available to the general public, in some cases there may be no road signs or directions to closed cities, and they are usually omitted from railroad time tables and bus routes. Sometimes closed cities may be indicated obliquely as an insignificant village. For mail delivery, a city is usually named as the nearest large city. The actual settlement can be distant from its namesakes, for instance, Sarov, designated Arzamas-16, is in the federal republic of Mordovia. People not dwelling in a city were subject to document checks and security checkpoints. To relocate to the city, one would need security clearance by the Organization running it. The closed city was guarded by a security perimeter with barbed wire and towers. The very fact of such an existence was often classified. This lack of freedom was often compensated by better housing conditions, also, in the USSR, people working with classified information received a salary bonus. They fell into two distinct categories, the first category comprised relatively small communities with sensitive military, industrial, or scientific facilities, such as arms plants or nuclear research sites. Examples are the towns of Ozyorsk with a plutonium production plant, and Sillamäe. Even Soviet citizens were not allowed access to places without proper authorization. In addition to this, some cities were closed for unauthorized access to foreigners. These included cities like Perm, a center for Soviet tank production, and Vladivostok, the second category consisted of border cities which were closed for security purposes
6.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
United States Marine Corps
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The U. S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U. S. Department of Defense and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military officer in the U. S. Armed Forces, is a Marine Corps general, the Marine Corps has been a component of the U. S. Department of the Navy since 30 June 1834, working closely with naval forces for training, transportation, and logistics. The USMC operates posts on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world, two battalions of Continental Marines were formed on 10 November 1775 in Philadelphia as a service branch of infantry troops capable of fighting for independence both at sea and on shore. The role of the Corps has since grown and evolved, expanding to aerial warfare and earning popular titles such as, Americas third air force, and, second land army. By the mid-20th century, the U. S. Marine Corps had become a major theorist of and its ability to rapidly respond on short notice to expeditionary crises gives it a strong role in the implementation and execution of American foreign policy. As of 2016, the USMC has around 182,000 active duty members and it is the smallest of the U. S. The USMC serves as an expeditionary force-in-readiness and this last clause, while seemingly redundant given the Presidents position as Commander-in-chief, is a codification of the expeditionary responsibilities of the Marine Corps. It derives from similar language in the Congressional acts For the Better Organization of the Marine Corps of 1834, in 1951, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee called the clause one of the most important statutory – and traditional – functions of the Marine Corps. In addition to its duties, the Marine Corps conducts Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure operations, as well as missions in direct support of the White House. The Marine Band, dubbed the Presidents Own by Thomas Jefferson, Marines from Ceremonial Companies A & B, quartered in Marine Barracks, Washington, D. C. The Executive Flight Detachment also provides transport to Cabinet members. The relationship between the Department of State and the U. S. Marine Corps is nearly as old as the corps itself, for over 200 years, Marines have served at the request of various Secretaries of State. After World War II, an alert, disciplined force was needed to protect American embassies, consulates, in 1947, a proposal was made that the Department of War furnish Marine Corps personnel for Foreign Service guard duty under the provisions of the Foreign Service Act of 1946. A formal Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the Department of State and the Secretary of the Navy on December 15,1948, during the first year of the MSG program,36 detachments were deployed worldwide. Continental Marines manned raiding parties, both at sea and ashore, the Advanced Base Doctrine of the early 20th century codified their combat duties ashore, outlining the use of Marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine detachments served aboard Navy cruisers, battleships, Marine detachments served in their traditional duties as a ships landing force, manning the ships weapons and providing shipboard security. Marines would develop tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in World War II, during World War II, Marines continued to serve on capital ships
8.
Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler
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The Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler is a twin-engine, four-seat, mid-wing electronic warfare aircraft derived from the A-6 Intruder airframe. The EA-6A was the electronic warfare version of the A-6 used by the United States Marine Corps. Development on the more advanced EA-6B began in 1966, an EA-6B aircrew consists of one pilot and three Electronic Countermeasures Officers, though it is not uncommon for only two ECMOs to be used on missions. It is capable of carrying and firing missiles, such as the AGM-88 HARM missile. The Prowler has been in service with the U. S and it has carried out numerous missions for jamming enemy radar systems, and in gathering radio intelligence on those and other enemy air defense systems. Following its last deployment in late 2014, the EA-6B was withdrawn from U. S. Navy service in June 2015, the USMC plans to operate the Prowler until 2019. The EA-6A Electric Intruder was developed for the U. S. Marine Corps during the 1960s to replace its EF-10B Skyknights, the EA-6A was a direct conversion of the standard A-6 Intruder airframe, with two seats, equipped with electronic warfare equipment. The EA-6A was used by three Marine Corps squadrons during the Vietnam War, a total of 27 EA-6As were produced, with 15 of these being newly manufactured ones. Most of these EA-6As were retired from service in the 1970s with the last few being used by the Navy with two electronic attack aggressor squadrons, with all examples finally retired in the 1990s. The EA-6A was essentially an interim warplane until the more-advanced EA-6B could be designed, the substantially redesigned and more advanced EA-6B was developed beginning in 1966 as a replacement for EKA-3B Skywarriors for the U. S. Navy. The forward fuselage was lengthened to create an area for a larger four-seat cockpit. Grumman was awarded a $12.7 million contract to develop an EA-6B prototype on 14 November 1966, the Prowler first flew on 25 May 1968, and it entered service on aircraft carriers in July 1971. Three prototype EA-6Bs were converted from A-6As, and five EA-6Bs were developmental airplanes, a total of 170 EA-6B production aircraft were manufactured from 1966 through 1991. The EA-6B Prowler is powered by two Pratt & Whitney J52 turbojet engines, and it is capable of high subsonic speeds, due to its extensive electronic warfare operations, and the aircrafts age, the EA-6B is a high-maintenance aircraft, and has undergone many frequent equipment upgrades. In addition, the EA-6B is capable of gathering electronic signals intelligence, the EA-6B Prowler has been continually upgraded over the years. The first such upgrade was named expanded capability beginning in 1973, then came improved capability in 1976 and ICAP II in 1980. The ICAP II upgrade provided the EA-6B with the capability of firing Shrike missiles, the Advanced Capability EA-6B Prowler was a development program initiated to improve the flying qualities of the EA-6B and to upgrade the avionics and electronic warfare systems. The ADVCAP development program was initiated in the late 1980s and was broken into three phases, Full-Scale Development, Vehicle Enhancement Program and the Avionics Improvement Program
9.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
10.
Panavia Tornado
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The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants, the Tornado IDS fighter-bomber, the suppression of air defences Tornado ECR. The Tornado was developed and built by Panavia Aircraft GmbH, a consortium consisting of British Aerospace, MBB of West Germany. It first flew on 14 August 1974 and was introduced into service in 1979–1980, due to its multirole design, it was able to replace several different fleets of aircraft in the adopting air forces. The Royal Saudi Air Force became the only operator of the Tornado in addition to the three original partner nations. A tri-nation training and evaluation unit operating from RAF Cottesmore, the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment, the Tornado was used by the Royal Air Force, Italian Air Force and RSAF during the 1991 Gulf War, in which the Tornado conducted many low-altitude penetrating strike missions. Including all variants,992 aircraft were built, during the 1960s, aeronautical designers looked to variable-geometry wing designs to gain the manoeuvrability and efficient cruise of straight wings with the speed of swept wing designs. The United Kingdom had cancelled the procurement of the TSR-2 and subsequent F-111K aircraft, Britain and France had initiated the AFVG project in 1965, but this had ended with French withdrawal in 1967. Britain continued to develop an aircraft similar to the proposed AFVG. Britain joined the MRCA group in 1968, represented by Air Vice-Marshal Michael Giddings, by the end of 1968, the prospective purchases from the six countries amounted to 1,500 aircraft. France had made an offer to Belgium on the Dassault Mirage 5. On 26 March 1969, four partner nations – United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, various concepts, including alternative fixed-wing and single-engine designs, were studied while defining the aircraft. An additional blow was struck by the German requirement reduced from an initial 600 aircraft to 324 in 1972, the front fuselage and tail assembly was assigned to BAC in the United Kingdom, the centre fuselage to MBB in West Germany, and the wings to Aeritalia in Italy. Similarly, tri-national worksharing was used for engines, general and avionic equipment, a separate multinational company, Turbo-Union, was formed in June 1970 to develop and build the RB199 engines for the aircraft, with ownership similarly split 40% Rolls-Royce, 40% MTU, and 20% FIAT. The aircraft was called the Panavia Panther, and the project soon coalesced towards the two-seat option. It was at point that Britains Chief of the Defence Staff announced two-thirds of the fighting front line will be composed of this single. The first of more than a dozen Tornado prototypes took flight on 14 August 1974 at Manching, Germany, the actual flight went so smoothly that I did begin to wonder whether this was not yet another simulation. Flight testing led to the need for minor modifications, airflow disturbances were responded to by re-profiling the engine intakes and the fuselage to minimise surging and buffeting experienced at supersonic speeds
11.
French Air Force
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The French Air Force is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, an arm of the French Army. The number of aircraft in service with the French Air Force varies depending on source, the French Air Force has 233 combat aircraft in service, with the majority being 125 Dassault Mirage 2000 and 108 Dassault Rafale. As of early 2016, the French Air Force employs a total of 42,607 regular personnel, the reserve element of the air force consisted of 5,187 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The Minister of Defence is responsible for execution of military policy and he is advised by the Chief of Staff of the Armies in regard to the use of forces and the control of military operations. The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force determines the air force doctrines and advises the CEMA how to deploy French air assets and he is responsible for the preparation and logistic support of the air force. The French took active interest in developing the air force from 1909 and had the first World War I fighter pilots, in the post–World War II era, the French made a successful effort to develop a domestic aircraft industry. Dassault Aviation led the way mainly with delta-wing designs, which formed the basis for the Mirage series of jet fighters. The Mirage demonstrated its abilities in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, the Falklands War, the French Air Force participated in several protracted colonial wars in Africa and French Indochina after the Second World War, and continues to employ its air power in Africa. The Military Air Transport Command had previously formed in February 1962 from the Groupement dUnités Aériennes Spécialisées. The Dassault Mirage IV, the principal French strategic bomber, was designed to strike Soviet positions as part of the French nuclear triad, also created in 1964 was the Escadron des Fusiliers Commandos de lAir, seemingly grouping all FCA units. CFAS had two squadrons of S-3 IRBMs at the Plateau dAlbion, six squadrons of Mirage IVAs, coTAM counted 28 squadrons, of which ten were fixed-wing transport squadrons, and the remainder helicopter and liaison squadrons, at least five of which were overseas. CAFDA numbered 14 squadrons mostly flying the Mirage F. 1C, two other commands had flying units, the Air Force Schools Command, and the Air Force Transmissions Command, with four squadrons and three trials units. In 1994 the Commandement des Fusiliers Commandos de lAir was established, the French Air Force is expanding and replacing aircraft inventory. After an absence lasting several decades, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that France will rejoin the NATO integrated command, from 2008-2010 the Air Force underwent an organisational streamlining process. This project was called Air 2010, which was the year of the deadline for all transitions, the main targets of this project were to simplify the command structure, to regroup all military and civil air force functions and to rationalise and optimise all air force units. Five major commands, were formed, instead of the former 13, CDAOA CFA CSFA DRHAA SAGF The last remaining squadron of Dassault Mirage F1s were retired in July 2014 and replaced by the Rafale. The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force determines air force doctrine and he is responsible for the preparation and logistic support of the air force
12.
Dassault Mirage 2000
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The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a fighter based on the Mirage III for the French Air Force. The Mirage 2000 evolved into an aircraft with several variants developed. The variants include the Mirage 2000N and 2000D strike variants, the improved Mirage 2000-5, over 600 aircraft were built and it has been in service with nine nations. The first production Mirage 2000C flew on 20 November 1982, deliveries to the AdA began in 1983. The first 37 Mirage 2000Cs delivered were fitted with the Thomson-CSF RDM and were powered by the SNECMA M53-5 turbofan engine, the 38th Mirage 2000C had an upgraded SNECMA M53-5 P2 turbofan engine. The Radar Doppler Impulse built by Thales for the Mirage 2000C entered service in 1987 and it has a much improved range of about 150 km, and is linked to Matra Super 530D missiles, which are much improved compared to the older Super 530F. Look-down/shoot-down capabilities are improved as well, but this radar is not usually used for air-to-surface roles. By the late 1980s, the Mirage 2000 was beginning to age compared with the latest models of F-16 fighters, in particular, attention was drawn to the aircrafts inability to engage multiple target simultaneously and the small load of air-to-air missiles it could carry. Consequently, Dassault in April 1989 announced that it would be working on a privately funded update of the Mirage 2000C which was to be named the Mirage 2000-5. A two-seat Mirage 2000B prototype was modified as the first Mirage 2000-5 prototype. A Mirage 2000C prototype was reworked to a similar standard. The first front-line aircraft variant to have been designed specifically in response to the market, Taiwan was the first country to order the type in 1992. The type was first delivered in 1996 and entered service in 1997, the upgraded aircraft were redesignated Mirage 2000-5F, and became operational in 2000. They retained the old system with the Serval/Sabre/Spirale units and did not receive the ICMS2 system. A two-seat version was developed as well, whose rear seat has a HUD but not an associated head-level display and lacks a built-in cannon, at the urging of the United Arab Emirates, Dassault worked on a further modification of the Mirage 2000-5. The aircraft uses retractable tricycle landing gear by Messier-Dowty, with twin nosewheels. A runway tailhook or a fairing for a parachute can be fitted under the tail
