France Deploys Strike Fighters Near Sudan as French-Backed Militias Lose Ground

The French Air Force has deployed Mirage 2000D RMV strike fighters to an air base in Djibouti, fuelling considerable speculation regarding the possible reason for this surge in the country’s offensive aerial warfare capabilities in East Africa. The Mirage 2000D RMV is a variant of the Mirage 2000 twin seat fighter with modernised avionics designed specifically for interdiction and close air support missions, with a defensive air-to-air armament of MICA infrared guided missiles. Their deployment occurs at a time when an insurgency in neighbouring Sudan widely reported to be being supported by France and the United Arab Emirates has faced multiple successive defeats, with the Rapid Support Forces withdrawing to the country’s western regions and receiving supplies through across the border through the former French colony of Chad.

The Mirage 2000 is considered effectively obsolete for modern air-to-air combat, and is significantly outmatched in its air-to-air capabilities by the Sudanese Air Force’s modernised MiG-29 fighters. A deterioration in the Sudanese fighter fleet, however, which occurred following the overthrow of the country’s government in a Western backed coup in April 2019, has brought its air-to-air capabilities into growing question. MiG-29s have been widely employed by the Sudanese Armed Forces against the Rapid Support Forces and other paramilitary groups sponsored by the United Arab Emirates and various European states, but have not been tested in air-to-air combat. Sudan’s MiG-29s are equipped with R-77 medium range air-to-air missiles with active radar guidance capabilities, allowing them to target Mirage 2000s at long ranges should they intervene in the conflict. Significant questions remain, however, regarding the extent of the radar coverage the Sudanese Air Force maintains over the country’s vast airspace, as well as whether the relatively short ranged MiGs could be positioned to intercept possible attacks launched from across the country’s eastern borders. A possibility remains that the French fighters were deployed to increase pressure on the government in Khartoum, which has faced significant diplomatic and economic pressure from countries across the Western world to enact a range of policy changes.