The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed as a lightweight fighter based on the Mirage III in the late 1970s for the French Air Force. The Mirage 2000 evolved into a successful multirole aircraft with several variants developed. The variants include the Mirage 2000N and 2000D strike variants, the improved Mirage 2000-5 and several export variants.[3] Over 600 aircraft were built[3] and it is in service in nine countries as of 2009.