Ukrainian Mirage 2000s Armed with MICA Medium-Range Missiles

Ukrainian Mirage 2000 fighter jets have been equipped with French medium-range air-to-air missiles MICA to counter Russian air targets.

A photo of the aircraft equippef with these high-precision French missiles was published by the Volyn SOS Medical charity foundation, which helps Ukrainian aviators, among others.

The MICA “dual-purpose” (short/medium range) aircraft missile is designed to intercept and destroy highly maneuverable manned and unmanned enemy assets.

These missiles form the basis of the modern arsenal of air-to-air missiles of the French Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighters, complementing the long-range Meteor missiles.

Plans to provide Ukraine with missiles of this type were announced in March 2025, but until now, only short-range Magic-2 missiles have been publicly reported, which are, however, quite sufficient to intercept Russian attack drones and cruise missiles.

MICA missile

The MICA missile replaced the Magic 2 missile with an infrared GEO and the Super 530 missile with a semi-active homing head. It has relatively small overall dimensions – 3.1 m in length, 160 mm in diameter and 112 kg in weight – and is about 30% lighter than the US AIM-120.

The MICA missile was originally developed as a modular platform for various GCVs, but despite the advantages of modularity, in the end, both versions of the missile were not very successful in terms of their characteristics.

The most important drawback is the maximum range of the missile in the version with the MICA EM active radar homing head. Its nominal maximum range (why this figure should not be confused with the effective range, read here) is stated at 80 km and is inferior to all modern missiles, such as the US AIM-120, European Meteor, Russian R-77 or Japanese Type 99.

The MICA IR variant with an infrared GSN has certain advantages over its counterparts, namely a range of 60 km. At the same time, the warhead of both missile variants is 13 kg, which corresponds to the level of modern short-range missiles. But this is significantly less than that of typical medium-range missiles.

Another significant disadvantage of the missile is its price. The modular design of the missile significantly affected its cost, which is about 2 million euros per unit. This is many times more expensive than typical short-range missiles with an IR GEO. For example, the AIM-9X Block 3 missile costs about 600 thousand US dollars, and the AIM-120D medium-range missile costs about 1.6 million US dollars.

The missile’s advantages include the fact that MICA can be launched at targets from any angle, even behind the aircraft, provided that the targeting is provided from another aircraft via the Link 16 communication channel. In addition, a relatively large number of them have been produced. According to some estimates, as of 2020, about 5,000 missiles have been produced. About 3,500 of them were exported.

A further development of the MICA missile was the MICA NG (Nouvelle Génération). The new missile retained the weight and dimensions of the previous version, but by improving the elemental base, it was possible to reduce the size of the control compartment. As a result, the size of the engine was increased, which increased the maximum range of the missile by 40%.

The new missiles are expected to enter service with the French army starting in 2026. In total, the French government has already ordered about 600 new missiles.

You can read more about this missile and its capabilities in our special material “MICA Missile – French AIM-120 or Not Quite?”.