Cheetah variants
First aircraft to be upgraded was a Mirage III D2Z no 845 and delivered to Atlas in April 1983. A number of Cheetah Ds were in use by 89 Combat FS (the unit reformed with the new type) even before the type was officially unveiled on 16 July 1986 by Atlas Aviation (now Denel Aviation). The Cheetah D aircraft as it was called at the official ceremony was a very aerodynamic, two seater, delta-winged aircraft in a toned down grey color scheme with toned down national markings.The ceremony included the Cheetah namesake - two live Cheetah wild animals enclosed in an appropriate cage. All Cheetah Ds were converted from Mirage III DZ and D2Z trainers.
Visual differences are the long drooping nose, two canards, dogtooth leading edges and an in-flight refuelling probe. In the side profile the aircraft appeared similar to the Kfir two seater, but retained the Atar back end. At the official ceremony the RWRs were removed from 845. The D variant was operational by the summer of 1987 and flown by 89 Combat Flying School at AFB Pietersburg in the Cheetah conversion and fighter/ground attack role. It looks like the single and double seater conversion programs proceeded side by side. But the double seaters received a higher priority. This could be due to ever decreasing numbers of Buccaneers on strength. Also as the Buccaneer delivered PGMs in the later The orriginal press release photo of South Africa's latest aircraft (Cheetah D no 845) during July 1986. Note 89 Combat FS badge, Cheetah logo, absence of RWRs and Mirage type ejection seats.
stages of the Border War conflict, it could be that the double seater Cheetah D was ideally suited for this role. Some publications speculate that the Cheetah D also took over SA's nuclear strike role and this was the main reason why the aircraft had to be operational in the shortest possible time. When the new Government came to power in 1994, South Africa's nuclear program was declared to world standard and no evidence could be found of weapons for use of mass destruction.
AFB Pietersburg closed down in 1992 and 89 Combat FS disbanded. All Cheetah D aircraft transferred to AFB Louis Trichardt where they joined 2 Squadron, the "Flying Cheetahs". They were mostly used as operational trainers. The Cheetah Ds is part of 2 Sqdn, but within the sqdn they form almost a separate component and many view them unofficially as "2 Sqdn Training Flight". It is not widely known but this training flight provided advanced training to a number of foreign air forces and various courses are conducted throughout the year. Main aspects of the foreign training are advanced operational flying while benefiting from the SAAF's vast combat experience. The Cheetah D has received at least one major upgrade program in addition to small system retrofits to have the aircraft on current basis with systems as fitted to the Cheetah C. A total of 16 Cheetah D aircraft were completed and one aircraft was lost in a flying accident. No 845 was used for system testing at TFDC and was extensively used in the development of MUPSOW - South Africa's indigenous stand-off weapon.
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