July 24,
2008: India has selected a local firm
(Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd) to upgrade the electronics in 68 of its Jaguar attack aircraft. The avionics upgrade (display attack ranging
inertial navigation, or Darin-3, for short) will make these older (20-25 years)
Jaguars competitive with more recent models. Many Indian Jaguars have already been
updated to handle laser and other smart bombs. The Darin-3 upgrade for each
aircraft will cost about $900,000.
The 11 ton
Jaguar is a single seat jet that carries two 30mm cannon, and up to 4.5 tons of
bombs and missiles. While capable of supersonic speed (1,500 kilometers an
hour), most of the time it moves at a little over half that speed. Sorties
average about 90 minutes each. India has found the two seat trainer versions
useful for complex attack missions, where the second seat is occupied by a
weapons systems operator.
The
French-British design began as a jet trainer that could also do ground attack.
Ultimately, Jaguar proved to be much better as a combat aircraft. India bought
over 200 of them, building most of them in India under license. So far, 30 have
been lost to accidents, but with upgrades, India expects to keep its Jaguars in
service for another twelve years. India finally ended production of the Jaguar
this year. Britain is replacing its
Jaguars with Eurofighters, an expensive proposition considering the low cost
and high effectiveness of the old, but very reliable Jaguar.
