Dassault Mirage III Mirage IIIR

The Mirage IIIR is Dassault's answer to the French requirement for tactical photographic reconnaissance within the Mirage III family. It uses the lengthened fuselage of the Mirage IIIE, but dispenses with its Doppler navigation radar; in its place, the nose houses up to five OMERA optical cameras usable both by day and by night. The family's fighter cannon are not habitually fitted on reconnaissance missions, but the airframe retains the capacity to install them if needed. The first flight took place on 31 October 1961; the Armée de l'Air received two prototypes and 50 production aircraft, a total of 52 units.

In the second half of the 1960s an improved version appeared, the Mirage IIIRD, by then fitted with the IIIE's Doppler navigation radar — which the original IIIR lacked — and with provision to carry, in an interchangeable underfuselage pod, an infrared linescan system, an additional Doppler navigation radar or a side-looking airborne radar (SLAR); 20 units of this improved version were built for the Armée de l'Air.

Like the rest of the family, the IIIR gave rise to export variants with a country letter adapted to each operator: the Mirage IIIRS for Switzerland (17 units delivered between 1968 and 1970 according to the French Wikipedia; the English version of the captured material puts deliveries at 18, a discrepancy recorded here without resolution for lack of a third source), the Mirage IIIRZ for South Africa (four units, later supplemented by another four re-engined with the Atar 9K-50 under the same designation family), the Mirage IIIRP for Pakistan (three units, followed by a second batch with provision for the infrared linescan pod) and the Mirage IIIRJ for Israel, resulting from the conversion of two Mirage IIICJ to the reconnaissance configuration. No IIIR ever operated under French colours outside the Armée de l'Air; its role was strictly tactical reconnaissance for the French air force and, through technology transfer, for its main export customers.