Denel Cheetah fighter

South Africa has been an important buyer of Mirage III from 1963. The international embargo of armament imposed in 1977, nevertheless prevented him to acquire other huntings but modern, by such reason it was decided to improve to the maximum the effectiveness of his Mirage.

The result was the development of the Cheetah program, that began in 1986 July, and gave like result a modernized version of the Cheetah two-seater. The transformations were applied to the single-seater Mirage IIIE and to Mirage R2Z of recognition.

Cheetah C: a further upgrade of the single-seat Cheetahs; a new "Advanced Combat Wing" design for performance improvements; with a new EL/M-2035 radar and a new engine.

Cheetah D: two-seated trainer; conversion of the Mirage III-BZ, DZ and D2Z; longer fuselage and more delicate equipment; with a SNECMA Atar 9K-50 engine.

Cheetah E: single-seat interceptor/fighter bomber; conversion of the Mirage III-EZ; retains the original engine from the Mirage III; mostly retired or converted to C standard.

Cheetah R: reconnaissance fighter version; retains the recce configurations from the Mirage III-RZ and R2Z.

DESIGNATION

Interceptor/Fighter Bomber

CREW

ONE

WINGSPAN

8,22 m

HEIGHT

4,55 m

LENGTH

15,65 m

CEILING

17.000 m

WEIGHT EMPTY

6,600 kgs

MAX WEIGHT

13,700 kgs

MAX SPEED

2,2 mach 2383 KM/H at 12.000 m Max cruising speed 956 KM/H at 11.000 m

POWER PLANT

One SNECMA ATAR 9C rated at 41.97 kN dry and 60.8 kN with afterburning or one SNECMA 9K-50 rated at 49.2 kN dry and 70.6 kN with afterburning

ARMAMENT

2 DEFA cannon 30 mm - Missiles air-to-air V3C Darter, V3B Kukri and Phyton 3, air-to-surface missiles AS30, Armscor bombs of 250 and 500 kg, bombs CB-470 and cluster bombs of 120 kg