Dassault Mirage
In the early 1970s, Venezula began to study replacing the F-86K Sabredog, and in 1971, the Dassault Mirage family was chosen, with the following aircraft ordered:
10 x Mirage IIIEV
Single seat fighter-bomber. Five hardpoints (4 wing, 1 ventral). Venezula chose the AIM-9B instead of the Matra 530, and for ground attack missions, two 68mm rocket launchers or 8 x 227 kg bombs could be carried by by the Mirage IIIEV. Survivors upgraded to Mirage 50EV standard.
4 x Mirage 5V
Single seat ground attack aircraft. Seven hardpoints. Survivors upgraded to Mirage 50EV standard.
2 x Mirage 5DV
Two Seat Trainer.
In 1979, studies began to modernize the Mirage; but this was delayed from 1980-1982 by the competition that ultimately selected the F-16 (Mirage 50 and Kfir were losers in that). Once the F-16 program was done, the Mirage modernization program resumed at the end of 1982; with the final agreements reached in January 1985; but due to the collapse of oil prices, this contract was cancelled.
The Caldas Crisis of August 1987 caused a new modernization contract to be signed in June 1989 with Dassault; consisting of:
5 x Mirage IIIEV (modernization)
3 x Mirage 5V (modernization)
2 x Mirage 5DV (modernization)
6 x Mirage 50EV (new build)
1 x Mirage 50DV (new build)
3 x Mirage 5M (ex-Zaire aircraft)
All 20 aircraft would be upgraded to the same common Mirage 50EV / Mirage 50DV standard; with a 20% more powerful engine, inflight refuelling, new ejection seats, and weapons were:
MATRA 2 Infrared AAMs
AM-39 Exocet Antiship missiles
Durandal II/BAP Anti Runway Bombs
Mk 82 Free Fall Bombs
68mm JL-100R rocket launchers
Due to crashes during the conversion program, the actual final operational Mirage 50 fleet ended up at 16, instead of 18 as originally planned. The first Mirage 50EV was delivered 30 November 1990, and the last was delivered in 1992.
By 2008, three Mirage 50EV were withdrawn from service as spares for the others. The remaining aircraft were withdrawn in June 2009 after 35 years of service.
In September 2009, Ecuador inspected the Mirage fleet for transfer to their air force, and a contract was signed. Six Mirage 50s were transferred to Ecuador, with the first 3 arriving there on 29 October 2009.
On 10 December 2009 the official retirement ceremony for the Mirage in the FAV was held, and on 15 December 2009, the other three aircraft in the Ecuador order were transferred.
Source:
https://www.fav-club.com/2014/01/15/...-en-venezuela/