Building Mirage IIICZ - no 806 in 48 scale

Mirage IIICZ 802 and 806 at AFB Ondangwa, 1987

Introduction

The Mirage IIICZ arrived in South Africa during 1963 and quickly established itself as the primary Air-Defence fighter of the South African Air Force (SAAF).  In the capable hands of the pilots of 2 Squadron numerous exercises were held to sharpen the skills of the pilots and radar operators alike and to establish the best procedures to use for the aircraft type.  The day however, soon arrived when the exercises turned into the real thing and with the developments in the “Border War” it was not long before the Mirage IIICZ was also deployed to the Operational Area in South West Africa (now Namibia).  The Mirages were used on both Air-Defence and Strike missions, usually operating from AFB Ondangwa in the North West of the county, although they did also operate from AFB Grootfontein, one of the major logistic centres just to the south of the town of Tsumeb.

2 Squadron did a number of deployments to the South West Africa Operational Area with the Mirage IIICZ and the final two deployments were to AFB Ondangwa, during 1987 and 1988.  The main tasks during the 1987 deployment were Base Defence, Escort for the Mirage IIIRZ/R2Z's and Interception missions.  The last return flight of the deployment was on 30 November 1987, when Richard Cornelius flew 815 back to the squadron’s homebase at AFB Hoedspruit, in South Africa.  The Officer Commanding 2 Squadron during this period was Cmdt Norman Bruton.