Dassault Mirage 5 The Dassault Mirage 5 is a supersonic attack aircraft designed in France by Dassault Aviation during the 1960s , and manufactured in France and a number of other countries . It was derived from Dassault ' s popular Mirage III fighter , and spawned several variants of its own . Design and development . Early development . The Mirage 5 grew out of a request to Dassault from the Israeli Air Force . Since the weather over the Middle East is clear and sunny most of the time , the Israelis suggested removing avionics , normally located behind the cockpit , from the standard Mirage IIIE to reduce cost and maintenance , and replacing them with more fuel storage for attack missions . In September 1966 , the Israelis placed an order for 50 units of the new aircraft . Mirage 5 . The first Mirage 5 flew on 19 May 1967 . It looked much like the Mirage III , except it had a long slender nose that extended the aircraft ' s length by about half a metre . A pitot tube was distinctively moved from the tip of the nose to below the nose in the majority of Mirage 5 variants . The Mirage 5 retained the IIIE ' s twin DEFA guns , but added two additional pylons , for a total of seven . Maximum warload was 4 , 000 kg ( 8 , 800 lb ) . Provision for the SEPR rocket engine was deleted . Rising tensions in the Middle East led French President Charles de Gaulle to embargo the Israeli Mirage 5s on 3 June 1967 . The Mirages continued to roll off the production line , even though they were embargoed , and by 1968 the batch was complete and the Israelis had provided final payments . In late 1969 , the Israelis , who had pilots in France testing the aircraft , requested that the aircraft be transferred to Corsica , in theory to allow them to continue flight training during the winter . The French government became suspicious when the Israelis also tried to obtain long - range fuel tanks and cancelled the move . The Israelis finally gave up trying to get the aircraft and accepted a refund . Later however , cooperation with France resumed outside the public ' s eye and Israel received 50 Mirage 5s in crates from AdA , while Ada took over the 50 aircraft originally intended for Israel , as Mirage 5Fs . The aircraft were delivered between May 1971 and February 1974 and assembled by Israeli technicians . Officially , Israel claimed to have built the aircraft after obtaining complete blueprints , naming them IAI Nesher . Like the Mirage IIIE , the Mirage 5 was popular with export customers , with different export variants fitted with a wide range of different avionics . While the Mirage 5 had been originally oriented to the clear - weather attack role , with some avionic fits it was refocused to the air - combat mission . As electronic systems became more compact and powerful , it was possible to provide the Mirage 5 with increased capability , even though the rear avionics bay had been deleted , therefore in some sub - versions , Dassault finished up with a " reinvented " Mirage IIIE . Reconnaissance and two - seat versions of the Mirage 5 were sold , with the designation Mirage 5R , and Mirage 5D respectively . However , a little consideration of the differences between a Mirage III and a Mirage 5 quickly shows that these designations were simply for marketing purposes . There was no clear dividing line between the configuration of a Mirage III reconnaissance or trainer version and that of a Mirage 5 equivalent , and were one and the same in many cases . The Mirage 5 was sold to Abu Dhabi , Belgium , Colombia , Egypt , Gabon , Libya , Pakistan , Peru , Venezuela , and Zaire , with the usual list of subvariant designations and variations in kit . The Belgian aircraft were fitted with mostly US avionics , and Egyptian aircraft fitted with the MS2 attack avionics system from the Dassault - Dornier Alpha Jet . In 1978 and 1980 , Israel sold a total of 35 of their Nesher s plus 4 Nesher trainer aircraft ( Nesher Ts ) to Argentina where they were locally known first as Daggers and after their last upgrade as Fingers . The Argentines lost two IIIEA and 11 Daggers during the Falklands War in 1982 , and , as a measure of solidarity , the Peruvians transferred 10 their Mirage 5s to Argentina , under the name Mirage Mara to help make good their losses . Chile incorporated some Mirage 5s under name Mirage Elkan . A total of 582 Mirage 5s were built , including 51 Israeli Neshers . Mirage 50 . The Atar 09K - 50 engine , however , was still a good idea , and fit of this engine led to the next Mirage variant , the Mirage 50 , during the 1970s . The uprated engine gave the Mirage 50 better take - off and climb characteristics than its predecessors . While the Mirage 50 also incorporated new avionics , such as a Cyrano IV radar system , it did not prove popular in export sales , as the first - generation Mirage series was becoming obsolete . Chile ordered a quantity of Mirage 50s , receiving both new production as well as updated Armée de l ' Air Mirage 5s . The Chilean aircraft were later modernized along the lines of the IAI Kfir as the ENAER Pantera . The Pantera incorporates fixed canards and other aerodynamic improvements , as well as advanced avionics . These aircraft have an extended nose to accommodate some of the new systems . In 1990 , Dassault upgraded a batch of Venezuelan Mirage IIIEs and 5s to the Mirage 50 spec , with the upgrades designated Mirage 50M . Mirage 5 ROSE . The Project ROSE ( Retrofit Of Strike Element ) was an upgrade programme launched by the Pakistan Air Force to upgrade old Dassault Mirage III and Mirage 5 aircraft with modern avionics . In the first phases of the project , 33 ex - Australian Mirage III fighters were upgraded and designated " ROSE I " . The PAF then procured surplus Mirage 5F fighters in the late 1990s from the French Air Force in two batches . 20 fighters from the first batch were upgraded with new cockpits , navigation / attack suites , defensive aids systems and a forward - looking infra - red ( FLIR ) sensor under the aircraft ' s nose / cockpit , being designated ROSE II . The cockpits included new MFDs , HUDs , HOTAS controls , radar altimeters and RWRs . 14 Mirage 5F fighters from the second batch were upgraded similarly but with newer systems and designated ROSE III . The FLIR sensors allow the Mirage 5 ROSE fighters to specialise in the night - time attack role . As of 1995 , the Mirage 5 has been donated to Pakistan Navy by the PAF and has been transformed into combat naval squadron as of 2009 .