In comparison with Dassault's successful Mirage series and other overseas derivatives, the Cheetah fighter is perhaps the least known. Unfamiliar to many, the Cheetah of the southern hemisphere was born in secrecy for political causes.
相对于达索(Dassault)公司畅销全球的“幻影Ⅲ”(Mirage III)系列战斗机和其它海外派生型号，产于南半球的南非“猎豹”(Cheetah)的来历，或许并不太为人熟识。对很多人来说，它的出现带着一些神秘和政治色彩。
Caused by the long ongoing Apartheid policy, in November 1977, an international arms embargo, including combat aircraft and spare parts, was imposed against South Africa by the United Nations. Meanwhile, the increasing border conflicts posed to threaten South Africa's security, a mid-life upgrade of the survivors of 74 aging Mirage IIIs received during 1963-70 became SAAF's high priority.
Under embargo, the state-owned firm of Atlas Aviation (now Denel Aviation as an aerospace group division under Denel (Pty) Ltd.) was the sole answer to the ambitious programme, which aimed at extensively modifying the Mirage III into an efficient combat aircraft. Planned upgrades included a modified airframe, a new engine and better avionics. Programmed launched with the assistance of Israel's IAI (officially denied) in 1984, as the Cheetah's strong resemblance of the IAI Kfir indicates possible Israeli involvement. First prototype redesignated "Cheetah" was rolled out in July 1986, it was a conversion of a Mirage III-D2Z two-seated trainer, and its initial flight took place in the same year. In the following summer, different conversions of varied Mirage IIIs became operational.
基于南非政府长期奉行的种族隔离主义，联合国于一九九七年十一月对南非强制实施包括战机及其零件在内的武器禁运。与此同时，渐增的边境武装冲突正威胁着南非的安全。因此，正在老化落伍的南非空军第二代战斗机──一九六三至七○年从法国所购买的七十四架所剩存下的大部份“幻影”Ⅲ，急需进行更新。在国际制裁下，将“幻影”Ⅲ大幅度修改为高效率的作战飞机的大胆方案，只能由当时国营的阿特拉斯公司(Atlas Aviation)，现为丹奈尔公司(Denel Aviation)所承担。而这些更新包括改良的机身，新的发动机，和更先进的电子设备。方案于一九八四年在以色列的秘密技术援助下开始实施，而“猎豹”和以色列“幼狮”(Kfir)外表之酷似大大地说明了以色列介入的可能性。第一架定名为“猎豹”的原形机于一九八六年七月诞生，由一架“幻影”Ⅲ-Ｄ２Ｚ双座教练机改成，在同年首飞成功。翌年夏天，从不同型号的“幻影”Ⅲ改装而成的各型“猎豹”开始投入使用。
In addition to a longer nose, aerodynamic modifications feature Kfir-style small nose side-strakes to prevent yaw departure at high AoA, a pair of fixed delta canards on the upper parts of th
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