Mystere IVA

Description

The Mystere IVA was a major milestone for France in their process to upgrade their Air Force to a global power status. The Mystere IV was the first aircraft capable of transonic speeds in service with the French Air Force. Based upon the lessons learned from the Mystere II, it had very important upgrades in avionics and aerodynamics, helping the aircraft reach the desired speeds. The first 50 Mystere IVA production aircraft were powered by British Rolls-Royce Tay turbojets, while the remainder had the French-built Hispano-Suiza Verdon 350 version of that engine. In total, France operated 6 squadrons of Mystere IVs, most of which were purchased under a United States Offshore Procurement contract.

Introduced in Update "Red Skies", the M.D.454 Mystere IVA follows a similar principle to delta wing fighters in War Thunder. It has a good top speed and relatively good engine, as well as good agility for dogfights, good high speed handling and excellent AOA (angle of attack) but it also means that it loses speed very quickly in sharp turns and other manoeuvres of the kind. It is armed with a pair of 30 mm DEFA cannons that have easy to learn ballistics and good damage output, but lack the fire rate of other cannons such as the Colt 20 mm cannons or 12.7 mm Browning HMGs found in many American fighters. The aircraft should avoid prolonged fights at all costs, using its good agility at high speeds to quickly point your gun at the enemy, and then maintain a steady course to regain the lost speed.

General info

Flight performance

Details

Engine performance

Survivability and armour

Armour plates

• 16 mm steel - in front of cockpit
• 16 mm steel - behind pilot
• 40 mm bulletproof glass - armoured windscreen

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Offensive armament

The Mystere IVA is armed with:

• 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552 cannons, chin-mounted (150 rpg = 300 total)

The guns, while deadly if they hit, have slow velocity, so it is important to get close to targets to ensure a hit. The armour-piercing shells are also very effective for taking out pillboxes, so while grinding out modifications keep in mind that extra points can be easily gained by shooting down a few light pillboxes. They can also penetrate the roof of most MBT's, so it is possible to destroy high level tanks in mixed battles when attacking from directly above purely with the guns.

Suspended armament

The Mystere IVA can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

	1	2	3
400 kg SAMP Type 21 bombs	1		1
500 lb AN-M64A1 bombs	1		1
1,000 lb AN-M65A1 Fin M129 bombs	1		1
SNEB type 23 rockets	19	55	19
T10 151 rockets	6		6
AA-20 Nord missiles	1		1
Maximum permissible loadout weight: 1,100 kg Maximum permissible weight imbalance: 450 kg

The Mystere has access to incredibly powerful rocket armaments. The heavy duty T10 151 rockets perform similarly to US HVARs, being rather slow, but deadly upon direct hit. They are very effective when attacking heavy tanks, as well as pillboxes, displaying 390 mm of penetration at a 30 degree angle. The other option is the high velocity SNEB type 23, which is effective for attacking medium tanks and MBT's, as well as light pillboxes. There is an option to have the SNEBs be mounted inside the fuselage, which will cause them to be launched 5 at a time just under the nose of the plane, for increased accuracy.

The AA-20 Nord air-to-air missiles are manually guided and not very agile, so they are best used against slow moving targets with a steady heading like Tu-4s. They are also very effective in head-on engagements with practice from the user.

Usage in battles

In Air Realistic battles, the Mystere is a very deadly aircraft in the hands of a good pilot.

Due to its very bad energy retention in manoeuvres, it is best used in more of a "boom and zoom" role, where it dives on unsuspecting enemies and delivers a quick death with the lethal 30 mm cannons. If forced to engage another aircraft that the Mystere is unable to escape, it performs best enacting a reversal, as the very good roll rate and poor energy retention will make it easy to make other aircraft overshoot. This is especially effective against MiG-15s and 17s, who will easily win a sustained turn-fight, but will have a hard time getting guns on target. Against more agile American aircraft, it is recommended to lure the plane as close as possible due to the poor speed. The majority of aircraft will easily be able to extend away after overshooting, so it is vital to equalize your energy states as much as possible, and be as close as possible for a firing solution once the enemy overshoots.

Radars

The M.D.454 IVa is equipped with an AN/APG-30 rangefinding radar located in the centre of the air intake in the nose of the aircraft. It will automatically detect other planes within the scanning area and display the range to the closest target. It is linked with a gyro gunsight and can help with aiming at close range in cockpit view.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 30 mm DEFA 552 cannons are fast firing
• Able to execute very high G and angle-of-attack manoeuvres
• Excellent roll rate
• Good flaps
• Superb ground attack capabilities

Cons:

• Mediocre energy retention and sustained turn
• Bad acceleration
• Compresses at high speeds
• Slow muzzle velocity for the 30 mm DEFA 552 cannons

History

The Dassault MD.454 Mystère IV was developed in the 1950s, as France's first transonic fighter in service. The aircraft had a very similar appearence to other Dassualt designs of the time, like the Ouragan, Mystere II and the Mystere III, however the Mystere IV was a newer design, much more improved over its predecessors, that solidified France as a major weapons manufacturer in the global market.

Development

The aircraft itself was based upon the Mystere II rather than in the Mystere III, however the similarities ended with the airframe and the fuselage. The new aircraft was designed to reach high speeds capable of matching the Soviet MiG-15/17s and American F-86s Sabres that started to become more and more frequent. This included improvements to the aircrafts aerodynamic design, with a more aggressive swept wing design and redesigned nose, as well as improvements to the avionics, navigation equipment and the introduction of a more powerful Hispano-Suiza Verdon 350 turbojet engine, although the first 50 units of the Mystere IVA used British Rolls-Royce Tay turbojets instead.

Service History

• France: It operated, at its peak, six squadrons of this fighter. Most of the fighters were acquired by the US under an Offshore Procurement contract, when said contract ended, most of the fighters were retired to the United States, however in 1953 the US procured another contract for France to operate a total of 227 Mystere IVs. The aircraft participated in the Suez Crisis of 1956 with the French Air Force.
• Israel: Originally intending to acquire Mystere IIs, Israel changed its order to 24 Mystère IVs in 1955, which were delivered from April to June 1956, equipping 101 Squadron. A further 36 were delivered in August 1956, with a final aircraft, equipped for reconnaissance duties, delivered in September 1956. The aircraft participated in the Suez Crisis with the IDF for both air and ground attack duties, the Mysteres managed to score several kills against enemy MiG-15s, Mig-17s, Vampires with only a single aircraft lost, due to AA fire. It also participated in the Six Days War of 1967, when it was being considered retiring it in favour of the A-4 Skyhawk, in this war it was relegated to only ground attack missions due to its old age. It claimed three kills at the cost of 7 Mystere IVAs lost, 5 to AA fire and 2 due to enemy fighters.
• India: India procured a large number of Mystere IVs during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and some were also used in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The Mystere IVs from India were vastly outmatched, facing much more modern F-104 Starfighters, thus most of their actions were in raids against enemy airbases, destroying several F-104s, F-86s and cargo aircrafts in the ground, and doing close air support missions. While it was being retired after the end of the war, some were still in service in 1971, participating but just in a minor role, at the end all fighters were retired in 1973.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Mystere IVA from live.warthunder.com.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.