D32-094 Mirage IIIEA Argentina

The Mirage III is a supersonic fighter aircraft designed by Dassault Aviation during mid-1950s. French government launched specifications for a lightweight, all-weather interceptor in early 1953, this lead to Dassault to design the Mystère-Delta 550. The first prototype of the Mystère-Delta flew on June 25, 1955, after some redesign, was renamed Mirage I. The Mirage I had a small size that restricted the armament it could carry to a single air-to-air missile. A bigger version, Mirage II, was built, but modifies were made, naming the new design Mirage III. The first prototype of Mirage III flew on November 17, 1956.
Mirage IIE version is a multirole/strike variant, the first prototype flew in April 1, 1961, having a bigger fuel capacity than its previous version, Mirage IIIC. Total production of Mirage IIIE, including exports, was substantially larger that previous versions, with a total of 523 A/Cs, 17 of them were Mirage IIIEA, sold to the Argentinean Air Force. Licenses of production were given to Australia, Belgium and Switzerland. The primary users of Mirage III were the French Air Force, Israeli Air Force, Pakistan Air Force, and Argentine Air Force, keeping a status of active service.

The Mirage in Argentina
In the decade of 1960s, Argentinian Air Force begun a plan to upgrade its air force, the needed an A/C to replace Gloster Meteor, and were a complement to F-86F Saber, that, even when was an excellent fighter A/C, was not in the role of interceptor. The first candidate was North American F-100 Super Saber, which was discarded when appeared a new generation of A/Cs. Other competitors were English Electric Lightning, Saab 35 Draken, and Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, when a new candidate appeared. For its performance during the Six-Day War (a war of Israel against Egypt, Syria and Jordan that lasted from June 5- 10, 1967), Dassault Mirage III was the chosen A/C. A contract with Marcel Dassault was signed in 1967, but due the approval of founds for the buy, was until 1970 when a bought of 10 Mirage IIIE and 2 twin-seater DA was done. The first Mirage IIIEA, I-003, was delivered in August 31, 1972. In 1975, I-003 was part of a destruction attempt by Marxist guerrilla, which was stopped. In January 5, 1976, the Grupo de Operaciones 8 (8th Operation Group) was activated, and later its name was changed to Grupo de Caza 8 (8th Fighter Group). In May 27, 1976, the bought of 7 more Mirages was signed, and they were delivered in 1979/1980. The first mission of Argentinian Mirage against foreign forces was in December 18, 1978, against Chile for the control of Beagle Canal. The crisis ended in December 24, 1978. In 1982, two new Mirage IIIDA were delivered.

Versions you can find in this decal:

Mirage IIIEA (Falklands, blue experimental scheme, gray low-visibility)

Mirage IIICJ (Desert camouflage)

Available only in scale 1:32