The SEPECAT Jaguar is a single and twin-seat, swept-wing, twin-engine, transonic attack aircraft. It was developed as a joint venture between Breguet Aviation of France and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in the 1960s.
Development of the Jaguar aircraft
The development of the Jaguar began in the early 1960s, when the RAF wanted a supersonic trainer and the French Air Force began to look for a replacement for their aging fleets of ground attack aircraft. The two air forces wanted a new aircraft that was versatile, affordable, and easy to maintain.
In 1966, Breguet Aviation and BAC(British Aircraft Corporation) formed a joint venture called SEPECAT (Société Européenne de Production de l’Avion d’École de Combat et d’Appui Tactique) to develop and produce the Jaguar. The prototype Jaguar flew in 1968, and the aircraft entered service with the RAF in 1972.
Design features
The Jaguar is a, swept wing, twin-engine aircraft, with a tricycle landing gear. The Jaguar landing gear is designed to be rugged and capable of operating from rough or unprepared runways. This is important for an attack aircraft, which may need to operate from forward bases near the front line.
- Oleo-pneumatic struts: The Jaguar landing gear is equipped with oleo-pneumatic struts, which absorb the shock of landing on rough surfaces.
- Reinforced structure: The Jaguar landing gear is heavily reinforced to withstand the stresses of landing on rough surfaces.
- Long-stroke landing gear: The Jaguar landing gear has a long stroke, which allows it to absorb the shock of landing on rough surfaces and to take off from short, rough runways.
Intended role of the Jaguar aircraft
The Jaguar was designed to be a versatile attack aircraft, capable of performing a wide range of missions, including:
- Ground attack
- Close air support
- Reconnaissance
- Maritime strike
- Training
The Jaguar was particularly well-suited for close air support, as it could fly low and slow to support ground forces. We will talk next about the operational history and capabilities of Jaguar as a ground attack platform.
Specifications of Aircraft
Range
The Jaguar aircraft weighs up to 15 tonnes and can fly 850 km on its internal fuel tanks and with an external drop tank the combat range is increased to 1400 km. This gave it a longer range than competing aircraft like the Mikoyan MiG-27. It can perform 8G maneuvers and has a max service ceiling of 46,000ft. Jaguars can fly at Mach 1.1 at a low level and Mach 1.6 at a higher altitude.
Armaments
The Jaguar has five hardpoints for carrying up to 4,500 kg of external weapons.
- It has a 30 mm ADEN Mk 4 cannon.
- It can carry the Ordinance factory board’s HSD 250 and 450 bombs.
- CBU-87 Cluster bombs
- Griffin LGB and lighting pod for laser guidance
- ASRAAM shorts range air to air missiles. It replaced a mistral air-to-air missile. ASRAAM is 3rd generation-guided infrared guided Missile with range and it can perform up to 50g’s of maneuvers making it very lethal in close-range fights.
- It can also carry DRDO SAAW bombs.
- It has Harpoon missile for anti-ship role.
- Not to forget Jaguars has capability to carry Nuclear Weapons.
Power Plant
The current Jaguar is powered by the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca AdourMk811, a two-shaft turbofan engine capable of producing 22.75 KN thrust each dry, 32.5 KN with afterburner. This same is also used in Hawk advanced jet trainer aircraft. IAF wanted to upgrade the engine of the aircraft under the DARIN3 program with Honeywell’s F125IN due to cost issues. There are also talks of integrating the indigenous HFT25 turboshaft engine, which is capable of producing around 25 KN of Dry and 43 KN of wet thrust.
Jaguar M(Naval Variant of Jaguar)
After the Suez Crisis in 1956, France was forced to withdraw its forces from Egypt under the pressure of the USA after this France took exit from NATO. With France’s withdrawal from NATO, France cannot rely on the US for security and protecting its interests overseas. Thus they started in search of fighters for their career fleet. They had Étendard but it was outclassed by every other contemporary fighter of that time, so the French decided to convert the jaguar for the maritime role. The Jaguar M program was started in 1970. Initial Jaguar M catapult testing was conducted in the UK and later tested on board the career.
The test was proved successful when the Jaguar was tested in a clean configuration and later on, the test was conducted on the Jaguar in a heavy configuration where it faced troubles like poor throttle response and sometimes it would lose one of its engines. Landing with one engine that to a with poor thrust proved to be dangerous. Above this, for operating the Jaguar there was a need for modification of the career which would result in cost overruns.
Coupled with this Jaguar faced engine issues and the Rolls-Royce Adour engine was still in development. Adding to this in 1971 Breguet was bought by the Dassault. Dassault wanted super Etendard to be purchased by the navy and began lobbying heavily for it. Thus Jaguar being plagued with engine issues, cost overruns were canceled in 1973 and the super Etendard by Dassault entered the service of the French Navy serving to this day on board Charles De Gaulle
Operational History
Africa and the Gulf War
French Jaguar saw extensive combat in Africa and the Gulf War along with RAF Jaguars. The jaguars proved to be effective assets for ground attacks and SEAD missions during the Gulf War taking out Iraqi air defenses, airbases, communication centers, and ammunition depots. The French Jaguar force in Saudi Arabia built up to a maximum of 28 aircraft, which carried out 615 combat sorties. During the bombing raid at Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, three were damaged in the attack but all returned to base showing the ruggedness of the aircraft. Jaguars also performed anti-ship missions and reconnaissance during the war.
Jaguar In IAF
The SEPECAT Jaguar was commissioned into IAF on July 19, 1979. Indian Air Force (IAF) chose the SEPECAT Jaguar over the Dassault Mirage F1 and the Saab Viggen in 1978. The first squadron to be equipped with Jaguars was the No 14 squadron Ambala. IAF got around 160 aircraft, out of which 40 came directly from Britain and the rest 120 were made in India by HAL. IAF operates three variants of Jaguar that is IS variant, IB(twin seat) variant, and IM(maritime) Variant. In IAF it is known as Shamsheer(“Sword of Justice”).
IAF currently operates around 120 Jaguars across 6 squadrons, No 5 squadron known as “Tuskers” based in Ambala, No 14 squadron known as “Bulls” based in Ambala, No 6 squadron known as “Dragons” based in Jamnagar operates the IM variant of the Jaguar and is a maritime attack squadron, No 16 squadron known as “Black Cobras” based in Gorakhpur, No 27 squadron known as” Flaming Arrows” based in Gorakhpur, No 224 squadron known as “Warlords” based in Jamnagar.
Operational History In IAF
Jaguars conducted a reconnaissance mission in support of Operation Pawan(Sri Lanka). Later Jaguar played a crucial role in the operation of Sagar in the Kargil war. Jaguars operated from Awantipur, Adampur along with Mirages carried out photo reconnaissance along the LoC. Around a total of 150 photo recce missions were flown during the war. Along with reconnaissance missions, it also performed bombing dropping both unguided and laser-guided bombs on several important positions.
In a particular mission on June 24, 1999, a pair of Jaguars flying close to the Line of Control acquired a target using its laser-guided system and the target was a forward base of the Pakistan army. However, the pilot of a second Jaguar, who was supposed to fire the bomb targeted it outside the laser basket, that is, he did not fire it at the military base, because Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf were present at the base.
Jaguars also participated in various multinational exercises like COPE India, Red Flag, and Malabar exercise.
DARIN Upgrades
Initially, Jaguars came with a navigational attack weapon aiming sub-system (NAWAS), with which IAF was not happy and went for an indigenous upgrade called DARIN. DARIN(display attack ranging Inertial Navigation)
DARIN 1
• NAWAS was not a reliable system, even the aircraft system and testing establishment(ASTE, a Test Pilot School) tested it on Marut aircraft but rejected it. At the same time, Britain was developing Ferranti FIN124 and asked India to join the program and share the developmental cost, in return they were offering the inferior FIN124E, an export version of it. So India decided to go on its own for an indigenous upgrade.
The upgrade consisted of
• Segem inertial navigation system
• Smith Industries Headup display
• Ferranti’s Map and electronic display which was known as Comet and new data package
DARIN 2
The upgrade consisted of
- Segem ring laser gyro and GOS system
- Two mission computers from DRDO DARE(Defence Avionics Research Establishment)
- Elbit systems Heads Up display
- Multifunction display and chaff dispenser
DARIN3
Latest Upgrade consisted of
- New cockpit layout with dual multi-function display
- solid state data recorder, solid state video recorder
- Autopilot and open system architecture mission computers(OSAMAC)
- Engine and Flight Instrument system
- New radar that ELM2052 with a range of 150KM for air targets and 250 for ground and sea targets. it is a synthetic aperture mode for terrain mapping and better electronic countermeasure. It can track and engage multiple Target in air-to-sea mode
- A new fire control radar and Inertial navigation system with GPS and a geodetic height correction system, a much-needed instruments for aircraft that fly just a few feet above the ground.
Also Read, India’s Mig 21 Bison Farewell!
Relevance Jaguar aircraft as low-level bomber
Jaguar rugged aircraft as we have seen its performance in the Gulf War, can operate from rough and unprepared airstrips like Daulat beg Oldi airstrip in Ladakh and take off and perform the missions though the engine issues remain. Jaguar being a high-wing configuration aircraft is well suited for bombing roles. It can also fly very low making it an ideal platform for ground attack and is extremely effective against armored formations, especially in mountain regions with its terrain-hugging capability flying close to mountains can fry up Chinese. If anything like the longewala repeats in the future the god save Pakistanis from the shamsheer. Along with its sea-skimming capability, which makes it ideal for Maritime strikes, Jaguars along with Su30 with Brahmos will be a potent force for anti-ship roles. Moreover, it makes sense of IAF deciding to upgrade Jaguar and keep it in service till 2035, if we look at the performance of Su24 in the Ukraine war.
