Procurement: August 21, 2003

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Procurement is normally used to buy weapons, not deny them to your enemy. But Qatar is selling ten French built Mirage 2000-5 to the highest bidder. Two of the bidders are arch-enemies India and Pakistan. India already has 35 Mirage 2000 warplanes, and ten more on order. The Mirage 2000-5 is nearly identical to the 16 ton Mirage 2000, but has better electronics. Pakistan has about 110 of the older, 14 ton, Mirage III and 5 warplanes. The Mirage 2000 series is a new design, although it looks like the older Mirage models. The Mirage III/5 is 1960s technology, the Mirage 2000 is 1970s and later. The Mirage 2000 is still in production and Quatars were delivered in 1998. Qatar has always kept tight control over its defense spending, and apparently the very high tech Mirage 2000-5s are considered too expensive to operate. So they are selling them off.

 

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