Dassault Mirage 2000B
The two-seat conversion trainer that kept full combat capability · First flight 1980 · In service 1983
The Mirage 2000B is the two-seat operational conversion trainer. The only two-seater of the test programme, B01, first flew on 11 October 1980; it carried the vulture emblem of SPA 153 under the front cockpit in honour of its test pilot, Michel Porta. To make room for the second seat the cannon were deleted, but the B kept the radar and could carry the same air-to-air missiles and external stores as the single-seat 2000C.
The French Air Force acquired 30 Mirage 2000Bs. The two-seat fuselage also became the starting point for the strike Mirages: the nuclear 2000N and conventional 2000D are both two-seaters derived from it.
Every export customer bought a handful of two-seaters — India's 2000TH (now upgraded to 2000TI), Greece's 2000BG, Peru's 2000DP and Egypt's 2000BM — and Taiwan's 12 Mirage 2000-5DI follow the same layout on the later -5 standard.
