a Second Miss Space

While the Mirage III proved to be a more efficient design than the F-4, French leadership realized that the attrition rates of French Army pilots, especially in close-quarters and melee-range combat against the BETA, continued to remain high. In efforts to correct this, French Army leadership decided to change their combat doctrine to resemble more of the US Army's, designing the Mirage 2000 with high survivability and 2nd-Gen capabilities to engage in ranged combat at mid- to close-range.