The MIC’s efforts to acquire what was to become its most advanced combat aircraft ever culminated in a contract for 60 Dassault Mirage 2000 two-seat strike-fighters signed on 16 February 1982 (together with the order for Mirage F.1EQ-4s). It prompted – and financed – the development of an entirely new generation of avionic systems and weapons, like the Antelope radar and fire-control system, an advanced targeting pod similar to what eventually became the Atlis II, the MICA air-to-air missile (shown as installed on the outboard underwing pylon), and a conventional version of the ASAMP supersonic land-attack missile. This order never materialised, but a new contract for 54 Mirage 2000s was signed in 1989, when a model in the camouflage colours shown here was put on a display at the Baghdad arms fair. That contract was cancelled in the aftermath of the UN-imposed arms embargo of August 1990. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)