About the MICA IR, i think we should get a late variant of the 2000-5F, because some space will be necessary between thoses that don’t have any IIR missiles, that are unflarable, and thoses that have it. In the long run it would be better to have the current one at 13.7 without the MICA IR and a late one at 14.0 with the MICA IR added. In this case, more content is always better.
it’s also because China, thanks to Taiwan, should also get one without the MICA IR, they never used them.
There is also my air arcade point of view, where you need a good lineup of planes, not just one. Because of the lower number of differents airframes, getting more variants would be necessary to keep up with others trees that have a higher number of different airframes ( like the US with F-16, F-15, AV-8B and F/A-18 that will come soon ). In that matter, the F1MF2000 and either a Rafale or another 2000-5 would be necessary to keep up in the firsts months of 2025.
We could see a replacement pretty quick since we have the 2000D model they could just give us the 2000D r2 which would open up a lot of capabilities which was suggested a long time ago by@DirectSupport without having to model a new airframe
the thing is it’s not multi role, while there is F-16s with A2G and Fox 3. it’s a 2000-5 mk2 or -9 that will be necessary if the 2000-5F lose its A2G weaponry.
Even if they don’t, the plane is ahistorical as it is with the current air to ground loadouts. We can’t be advocating for unrealistic air to ground loadouts.
Yeah this is something worth discussing. The addition of 6x MICA IR will continue to increase the aircraft’s BR.
There is now more news showing that used Rafales from French service are being sold off to other countries and Rafales currently being produced are slated for other countries due to a backlog of orders. Because of this, MICA NGs may be introduced onto the current Mirage 2000-5Fs in French service. So that may be another set of missiles which would increase the aircraft’s BR.