Mirage 2000: Where pilots can aim weapons merely by looking at them

The Mirage 2000's strong multi-role capability made them a natural choice for the cross-LOC strikes

• Inducted in the 1980s to counter the Pakistani F-16, the Mirage 2000 was India’s first “multi-role” fighter, capable of shooting down enemy aircraft as well as ground strikes on the enemy 
• In the 1999 Kargil war, Mirage 2000 fighters played a prominent role, having been “jury rigged” to carry precision-guided bombs 
• In 2000, the Indian Air Force and Dassault, which built the Mirage 2000, proposed shifting the entire production unit to India, where 126 more Mirage 2000s could be built, to replace the IAF’s retiring MiG-21 fleet 
• This was turned down by then NDA government, and a fresh tender issued for 126 MMRCAs,