Page 47 - Air Forces Monthly - September 2017

MIRAGE DISPLAY TEAM

Mirage 2000D 635/3-AS tucks up its gear as it climbs
out of Base Aérienne 133 Nancy-Ochey. It wears
the sanglier (wild boar) emblem of EC 3/3 ‘Ardennes’
on the port side of the tailfi n.

event, the crew adopted the Couteau Charlie
callsign, reviving the traditions of a Mirage IIIE An interview
team that performed between 1977 and 1993. with ‘Elvis’
Meet the team
AFM: What were the criteria
At the end of Ramex Delta’s final season, the for crew selection?
French Air Force responded to public pressure Elvis: The 3 Escadre commanding
e
and decided to organise a replacement officers chose the crew from the
team. Some expected that a pair of Rafale Bs candidates that volunteered. The final
would take up the mantle. Instead, a more choice was based on qualifications and
obvious choice prevailed, and the 3 Escadre personal interaction. The team will
e
(3rd Wing) at Nancy was chosen to field a spend a lot of time together, so it’s very
successor, the Mirage 2000D crew having important to get along very well.
already proved they were up to the task. AFM: How experienced are the crews?
For the first season, the lead crew for the Elvis: The two pilots and two WSOs
new Couteau Delta team is provided by EC 2/3 are all four-ship leads, with more than
‘Champagne’, and comprises ‘Elvis’ as pilot and 2,000 flight hours and over 100 combat
‘Pastif’ as WSO (in French parlance, navigateur missions each. We have all been in the
officier système d’arme, or NOSA). The French Air Force for more than 12 years
second crew comes from EC 3/3 ‘Ardennes’ and are aged between 30 and 37.
with ‘San’ as pilot and ‘Axel’ as NOSA. AFM AFM: What are the similarities between
Couteau Delta and Ramex Delta? ‘Elvis’,
Elvis: The first common point is the Couteau
aircraft. The Mirage 2000D is based Delta pilot
on the Mirage 2000N. We have the and team
leader.
same airframe, same engine, same
flight control system, same navigation experience in this kind of display team.
system… but the primary missions For efficiency and safety reasons the
are different [conventional attack and display programme will be the same as
close air support, and nuclear strike, that of Ramex Delta in 2016. We met with
respectively]. Despite that, the Mirage the Ramex Delta crew, in particular ‘Gaby’
2000D and Mirage 2000N regularly [the former team leader] and ‘Pepe’ [WSO]
fly together in combat operations. so they could share their experience. They
AFM: What is the speciality helped us set up the display and timing,
of the 3 Escadre? but also [advised on] things like regulation,
e
Elvis: Without doubt, it is deployment deployment, communications…
at short notice. The Mirage 2000D is AFM: Can you explain the way you
reliable, versatile and efficient. It has choreograph the display on the ground?
been deployed in all recent French Elvis: During the pre-display briefing, the
Air Force operations. Nancy’s crew leader reviews the routine and the crew
are dedicated to achieving results. repeats the radio calls and the various
AFM: Is the Couteau Delta routine actions on the controls, trying to mentally
genuinely similar to your operations? visualise the display in the briefing room.
Elvis: The display is built up from From the outside it looks a little bit odd,
daily manoeuvres – strike, CAS [close but it is of paramount importance to
air support], show of force – but focus in this way before the display.
compressed in time and space to improve AFM: Do you feel a lot of
the experience for the public. Our pressure from the public?
motto is: ‘fly close together, close to Elvis: Looking at social media we realised
the ground and make some noise!’ that there was a lot of expectation. For
AFM: How did you manage the transition the first year we have already received
between Ramex Delta and Couteau Delta? a lot of requests. We are eager to show
Elvis: None of us four had previous the public the results of our work.

www.airforcesmonthly.com #354 SEPTEMBER 2017 // 47