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The Atlas Cheetah is a fighter aircraft of the South African Air Force. It is a major upgrade of the Dassault Mirage III. Three different variants were created, the dual-seat Cheetah D, and the single-seat Cheetah E and Cheetah C. The Cheetah E was retired in 1992, and the SAAF currently has a mixture of 28 Cheetah Cs and Cheetah Ds in operational service. Commencing from 2007, the Cheetah fleet will be replaced by 28 Saab JAS-39 Gripens (19C/9D).
The Atlas Cheetah programme grew out of South Africa's requirement for a modern fighter and strike aircraft in the 1980s, due to the need for more advanced aircraft to attain an edge over the ever more sophisticated Soviet aircraft being supplied to Angolan and Cuban forces in action against South African forces in the Border War, and the increasing cost of maintenance due to the age of the aircrafts used by SAAF. The United Nations Arms Embargo in place from at the time prevented South Africa from purchasing new aircraft from other countries, thus making an upgrade of existing aircraft the only option. By this stage, the South African aviation industry had reached the level of technical capability to make a large and sophisticated upgrade possible, leading the SAAF to make the only possible decision, to radically upgrade one of the existing types in service.
At the time the SAAF's fast jet fleet consisted of Dassault Mirage III (EZ/CZ/BZ/DZ/D2Z/RZ/R2Z) aircraft and Mirage F1 (AZ/CZ) aircraft. Though the Mirage F1s were the most modern of the fleet, having been delivered from 1977 onwards, they were the primary element of South Africa's air defence and strike fleet and to withdraw them for an upgrade would have left an unacceptable gap in its air defence and strike capability. In addition there were already a few successful Mirage III upgrades from which to learn, such as the Kfir and Mirage III NG, so the SAAF's Mirage III fleet was chosen as the basis for the upgrade.
The upgrade was carried out by Atlas Aviation (formerly Atlas Aviation Corporation and latterly Denel Aviation), and consisted of a complete refurbishment of the airframe down to zero hours (in which some 50% of the original airframe is said to have been replaced), the fitment of non-moving canards (slightly different to those on the Kfir) just aft of the engine intakes, two new stores pylons at the wing roots, an aerial refuelling probe, new ejection seats, a more powerful engine, the Atar 9K50 (upgraded in South Africa), in the D and C variants, a new main wing spar along with a new "drooping" leading edge and a dog-tooth incision on each wing, modern elevons controlled by a twin computer flight control system, and strakes on the nose to improve the Cheetah's high- Angle_of_attack (AoA) performance. The aerodynamic refinements alone increased the turn rate by 15%, increased the AoA, reduced the minumum airspeed to 100kts and increased maximum take-off weight by 700kg. However, it also resulted in a 5% decrease in maximum level speed and acceleration.
In addition, a highly sophisticated avionics, radar, EW and self-protection suite was installed, necessitating a lengthening of the nose. This entailed the fitment of an EW suite which includes missile and radar warning sensors, and automatically engages the aircraft's self-protection system, which consists of electronic jammers and chaff/flare dispensers; the integration of a South African helmet-mounted sight and an oversized Head-Up Display (HUD); the installation of an advanced Pulse-DopplerDoppler radar uses the Doppler effect to return additional information from a radar system. The Doppler effect shifts the frequency of the radar beam due to movement of the "target", allowing for the direct and highly accurate measurement of speeds. Doppl radar and sophisticated cockpit instrumentation.
It has been alleged that some Israeli assistance was involved in the Cheetah programme, something the SAAF will neither confirm nor deny. However, considering the close ties between South Africa and Israel at the time, especially in the sphere of military research, it can be assumed that at least some of the components were sourced from Israel. Yet it is important to note that despite some rumours, the Cheetah is not the Kfir 2000, and aside from a few elements sourced from Israel, the upgrade was entirely South African. There is no evidence of direct Israeli assistance in the upgrade.
16 of the SAAF's 27 Mirage IIIDZ/D2Z aircraft were converted to Cheetah D standard, 16 of its Mirage IIIEZ aircraft were converted to Cheetah E standard, but no South African Mirage airframes were used for the 38 Cheetah Cs. It has recently been confirmed that the source for these airframes was Israel, which supplied Mirage III airframes
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