It was the 2nd aircraft built (hence A3-2) A3 was prefix that Aust used to identify the Mirage Aircraft Type on the register
That particular aircraft was assigned to ARDU (Aircraft Research and Development Unit) based out at Edinburgh Air Force Base in South Australia.
It would also have been flight based out at Woomera to do weapons testing.
Its an early paint scheme as the latter ones were painted Orange and White
Australia was splitting the role of the Mirages into Ground Attack and Fighter roles, so that aircraft could have test bedded the different packages.
I doubt whether Pakistan would use it in the same role, I imagine that it would have been refitted with DEFA canons etc when you did your ROSE upgrades.
edit addition:
forgot to add, that typical weaps loadouts included Matra R530's (?), Sidewinders (Mirage 111OF) and 250lb bombs (Mirage 111OA).
The first aircraft in a production run is typically assigned to ARDU to do test bed work. The same has happened with the FA/18's. There has been an
F-111 assigned to ARDU but IIRC it was not a permanent fixture.
I've got some other ARDU mirage shots but i'd need to get someone else to post them up for me.
