IAI Nesher & Kfir
Israel Aircraft Industries' Mirage 5 derivatives — the Atar-powered Nesher, then the J79-powered, canard-equipped Kfir · First flight 1973 (Kfir) · In service 1975
With its Mirage 5s embargoed, Israel Aircraft Industries produced its own version of the airframe as the Nesher, powered by the Atar 9C. Accounts differ on how much French help was involved. The first was delivered to the IAF in May 1971, and 61 were built, 51 single-seaters and 10 two-seat trainers. After a short Israeli career, the surviving Neshers were refurbished and sold to Argentina in 1978 and 1980, where they flew as the Dagger and later, after avionics upgrades, as the Finger, until 2015.
The Kfir replaced the Atar with an Israeli-built General Electric J79, giving much more thrust. The Kfir prototype flew in June 1973, and the type entered service with 101 Squadron in the mid-1970s. The Kfir C.2 added large fixed canards on the intakes, dog-tooth wing leading edges and small nose fences, which improved take-off and low-speed handling. More than 220 Kfirs were built.
The IAF withdrew its Kfirs in the second half of the 1990s, but the type found export customers in Colombia, Ecuador and Sri Lanka. Colombia's C.10s gained Elta radars. From 1985 to 1989 the US Navy and Marine Corps leased 25 as F-21A adversary aircraft, and a US contractor, ATAC, still flies F-21s in the aggressor role.
