Mirage III, while in its roles either as a bomber or attack aircraft, the lack of an advanced navigation/attack system became a crippling limitation upon its effectiveness. The only export customer for the Vautour was Israel, who had chosen to procure a number of other types of combat aircraft from France as well. During the 1950s, France and Israel closely cooperated on various areas of defence, including armaments, aviation, and nuclear research. According to author Sylvia K. Crosbie, a major motivating factor in the Israeli decision to procure the Vautour was to make a political statement to the country's neighbours, viewing the aircraft as a counterpart, and a response, to the Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-28 medium bombers, which had been acquired by Egypt. During 1956, two years prior to the Vautour even entering squadron service, France had issued a more demanding requirement for a supersonic replacement aircraft. The Vautour was used as a stop-gap measure as the airborne carrier of France's independent nuclear deterrent while the more capable follow-on aircraft was being selected and developed; its performance in this role was typically thought to be limited at best. While the newer bomber requirement would ultimately result in the selection, development and manufacture of the Dassault Mirage IV bomber; Sud Aviation had also chosen to respond to the requirement, producing their own proposal for the production of an envisioned Super Vautour. According to aviation author Bill Gunston, the unbuilt 'stretched' Super Vautour variant would have featured an increased combat radius of 1,700 miles as well as the ability to attain at least Mach 0.9. Design The Sud Aviation Vautour was a jet-propelled mid-sized combat aircraft, typically employed as a bomber and attack aircraft, as well as having some usage as an interceptor. In terms of its basic configuration, it had a shoulder-wing monoplane configuration, furnished with a 35° swept wing and a "flying" tail. Power was provided by a pair of SNECMA Atar 101 turbojet engines, which were carried in pods located underneath the wings. The Vautour was equipped with a bicycle-type landing gear configuration in which the main units were located upon the underside of the fore and aft fuselage, these were augmented by smaller stabilizing gear set into bottom of the engine pods. The internal space of the central fuselage was largely dedicated to a large 5.0 meter (16 ft 5 in) weapons bay, along with substantial internal fuel tankage.