The Mirage IV is similar in design layout to the Mirage fighters, featuring a tailless delta wing and a single square-topped vertical fin. It has two SNECMA Atar turbojets in the rear fuselage, with air intakes on both sides of the fuselage that had intake half-cone shock diffusers, known as souris ("mice"), which were moved forward as speed increased to reduce inlet turbulence. It can reach high supersonic speeds: the aircraft is redlined at Mach 2.2 at altitude because of airframe temperature restrictions, although it is capable of higher speeds. The aircraft has 14,000 liters (3,700 gal (US)) of internal fuel, and its engines are quite thirsty, especially in afterburner.
The crew of two (pilot and navigator) are seated in tandem cockpits under separate canopies. A bombing/navigation radar is housed within a radome in the fuselage under the intakes, aft of the cockpit. In 1980s, the Martin-Baker Mark 4 ejection seats were also apparently upgraded to Mark 6 standard, providing true "zero-zero (zero speed, zero altitude)" ejection capability. A refueling boom is built into the nose and figures prominently in Mirage IV operations.
The Mirage IV has two pylons under each wing, with the inboard pylons being normally used for large drop tanks of 2,500 liter (660 gal (US)) capacity. The outer pylons carry ECM and chaff/flare dispenser pods to supplement the internal jamming and countermeasures systems. On current aircraft, these are typically a Barax NG jammer pod under the port wing and a Boz expendables dispenser under the starboard wing. No cannon armament was fitted. The early Mirage IVA had a fuselage recess under the engines for a single AN-11 or AN-22 nuclear weapon of 60 kt yield.
From 1972 onward, 12 aircraft were also equipped to carry the CT52 reconnaissance pod in the bomb recess. The CT52 is available in either BA (Basse Altitude, low-level) or HA (Haute Altitude, high-altitude) versions with three or four long-range cameras. A third configuration is an infrared line scanner. None of the CT52 has any digital systems, relying on older 'wet' film cameras.
Later Mirage IVP aircraft could be fitted a single centerline pylon for the ASMP stand-off missile.
The Mirage IVA could theoretically carry up to six large conventional bombs at the cost of drop tanks and ECM pods, but such armament was rarely fitted in practice.
General characteristics
- Crew: two: pilot & navigator/bombardier
- Length: 23.49 m (77 ft 1 in)
- Wingspan: 11.85 m (38 ft 10½ in)
- Height: 5.40 m (17 ft 8½ in)
- Wing area: 78.00 m² (839.6 ft²)
- Empty weight: 14,500 kg (31,967 lb)
- Loaded weight: 31,600 kg (69,700 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 33,475 kg (73,800 lb)
- Powerplant: two × SNECMA Atar 9K-50 turbojets
- Dry thrust: 49.03 kN (11,023 lbf) each
- Thrust with afterburner: 70.61 kN (15,873 lbf) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: Mach 2.2 (2,340 km/h, 1,264 knots, 1,454 mph) at 13,125 m (40,000 ft)
- Combat radius: 1,240 km (670 nmi, 775 mi)
- Ferry range: 4,000 km (2,160 nm, 2,484 mi)
- Service ceiling: 20,000 m (65,600 ft)
- Climb to 11,000 m (36,100 ft): 4 min 15 sec
Armament
- Bombs:
- 1× AN-11 free-fall nuclear bomb or
- 1× AN-22 free-fall nuclear bomb or
- 16× 454 kg (1,000 lb) free-fall conventional bombs
Avionics
- Thomson-CSF navigation radar
- Doppler navigation
- CT-52 sensor pod for strategic reconnaissance
