Iraqi Mirages: Dassault Mirage Family In Service With Iraqi Air Force, 1981-1988 (Middle East@War)

A great book covering development and use of Iraqi Mirage F-1s.

Iraqi Mirages, The Dassault Mirage Family In Service With The Iraqi Air Force, 1981-1988 is a book I always wanted to read. Although I’m of Greek nationality and well briefed with the Dassault fighter because of his successful service with the Hellenic Air Force, I always knew that there were more capable F1s which fought a hard war over the Middle East. The new volume of the Middle East@War series is a classic one. Within its pages the reader will understand why the Mirage F1 was an actual multi role fighter, flying numerous air to air, air to ground, suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) and anti shipping missions carrying a variety of modern weapons of its time. Most interested parts, are the ones which cover Giraffe missions, or in other words the missions carefully planed to shot down IRIAF F-14s, the operational use of the Exocet anti-ship missile during the so called Tanker War and the exploitation of the ECM pods from the Iraqi fighters, namely Caiman, Syrel and Remora. The political aspect covering the procurement of the French fighter as well the following operations helps to understand the big picture behind the military action. Furthermore reference to the famous project Suzana and the transformation of a Falcon 50 jet to a formidable long range ship killer equipped with two Exocet, the Mirage F1 radar and electronics as well as a similar cockpit layout on the left side keeps the readers attention unobstructed. The book have also an extensive color section with Mirage profiles created by Tom Cooper, maps and paintings covering the actions of the F1s during their Iraqi service. Concluding, Tom Cooper and Milos Sipos wrote a best seller in aviation history books and through their notes sections in the end pages they revealed us that they are working for their next big hit, which is...better buy the book and find out. You won’t regret it!