France’s defence procurement agency has qualified Thales’s Talios targeting pod for the French Air and Space Force’s Mirage 2000D RMV, giving the upgraded strike aircraft a newer sensor suite in place of the older Damocles pod. The move extends Talios beyond its established role on Rafale and brings additional targeting and reconnaissance capability to a legacy platform used for precision strike missions.
The qualification adds improved target-coordinate extraction, a higher-resolution near-infrared day channel and an air-to-ground datalink. It also brings better infrared detection, recognition and identification, moving-target tracking, stronger interoperability with ground stations, an updated user interface and an air-to-air mode.
The Mirage 2000D RMV programme has already modernised France’s 1990s-era strike fleet for service into the 2030s. Talios had previously been linked to Rafale F3-R service, underlining its broader operational pedigree and its transfer to the Mirage 2000D RMV as part of the aircraft’s continuing upgrade path.