Chandigarh: In a move aimed at sustaining the operational capability of the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) legacy Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar fleet, India is set to receive nine retired examples of the twin-engine combat aircraft from the United Kingdom imminently for use as a source of spare parts and sub-assemblies. This follows the IAF’s continuing efforts to keep the world’s last Jaguar fleet airborne, decades after the fighter had been retired by all other users.While the IAF declined to comment on the matter, industry sources and several media outlets, including the Indian Defence Research Wing (IDRW), reported earlier this week that three former Royal Air Force (RAF) Jaguars, “meticulously wrapped in white protective coverings”, were seen positioned at a British port awaiting shipment to India. The defence website further reported and official sources confirmed that these were part of a larger consignment of nine decommissioned RAF Jaguars, along with over 150 categories of spares and components intended for the IAF. However, details of the deal are not known.But once in India, these former RAF fighters will be cannibalised to support the IAF’s six ageing Jaguar squadrons, comprising around 120 aircraft. Developed in the late 1960s and inducted into IAF service from 1979 onwards, the Jaguar continues to equip squadrons at Ambala, Gorakhpur and Jamnagar in its three IS, IB and IM variants, with the latter base operating the maritime strike (IM) type.The latest consignment of retired Jaguars marks the second such acquisition since 2018, as the IAF continues to source airframes, spares, and sub-assemblies from former operators to extend the operational life of this fighter fleet. Earlier batches came from France, Oman and the UK, all of which had withdrawn the fighter from active service in 2005, 2014 and 2007, respectively and put them on display in museums.On that occasion, France had transferred 31 retired Jaguar airframes to the IAF free of cost, while Oman provided two additional aircraft, along with eight Rolls-Royce Adour Mk 811 engines and around 3,500 lines of spares. The UK, for its part, supplied two twin-seat Jaguar airframes and 619 lines of rotables, capable of being restored to a fully serviceable condition, for around $400,000. The task of dismantling the aircraft, recovering usable components and transporting them to India, however, was undertaken by technicians from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which had licence-produced Jaguars since the early 1980s, the cost of which was borne by the IAF.SEPECAT Jaguar, with an array of weapons, at the Paris Airshow in 1981. Photo: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDeveloped in the late 1960s by the Anglo-French SEPECAT consortium, the Jaguar entered IAF service from 1979 onwards, when the first batch of 40 aircraft was delivered in fly-away condition. Christened Shamsher (Sword of Justice) by the IAF, the fighter was subsequently licence-produced by HAL, which built over 100 additional aircraft under a transfer-of-technology arrangement, before production ended in 2008.However, despite being amongst the IAF’s longest-serving strike platforms, the Jaguar’s operational career has been far from trouble-free.According to various media accounts, quoting official sources, at least 12 Jaguars crashed in the decade between 2015 and 2025 in addition to suffering over 50 major and minor incidents frequently attributed by pilots and analysts to the aircraft’s underpowered Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour Mk811 engines, which limited the platform’s performance, payload and manoeuvrability. Efforts to address this shortcoming through a long-planned ‘re-engining’ programme involving US-origin Honeywell’s F-125IN turbofan were ultimately abandoned in 2019 after costs spiralled to levels deemed uneconomical for an ageing fleet.Also read: Fatal Jaguar Crash Again Raises Concerns Over IAF’s Legacy FleetUnder the proposal, each Jaguar would have received a new Honeywell engine at an estimated cost of around $13.26 million. This would have been supplemented by a further $2.8 million per aircraft for HAL to strengthen the fighter’s airframe, integrate the new powerplant, and undertake the requisite flight-testing and certification programme for the completed platform.A retired three-star fighter pilot associated with this programme said the costs involved were “far too exorbitant” for an aircraft of the Jaguar’s vintage. Besides, he added, declining to be named, the expense of upgrading two existing Jaguars was roughly equivalent to acquiring a brand-new combat aircraft. Consequently, after years of deliberations, costly trials in the UK and prolonged negotiations, the project was eventually abandoned.Compounding these challenges was the growing difficulty of sourcing spare parts after Britain, France and HAL ceased production of the aircraft and many of its components. Yet, despite numerous operational shortcomings and serviceability rates that reportedly hovered between 50 and 60 per cent, according to an internal IAF assessment, the Jaguars continued to be retained as they were widely believed to play an important role in India’s triad of air, land and sea-based strategic delivery systems that together underpin its nuclear deterrent and , by extension, its second strike capability.This widely held assessment of the Jaguar’s strategic importance stemmed partly from the aircraft’s origins. Conceived during the Cold War era, the Jaguar was designed at a time when several Western air forces envisaged tactical nuclear strike missions as part of their operational doctrine. Consequently, the aircraft’s basic design possessed the potential to support such missions, if configured by the operator.Over the years, numerous open-source assessments have identified the Jaguar as one of India’s principal airborne nuclear delivery platforms, alongside Dassault Mirage 2000Hs and, more recently, the Dassault Rafale. However, the precise nature of any such role remains unknown. India’s nuclear command arrangements, delivery systems and operational procedures are among the country’s most closely guarded secrets, and little is publicly known about which squadrons may have been assigned strategic missions, how many aircraft were involved, or what modifications or ‘hard wiring’ if any, had been undertaken to support such tasks.Accordingly, the Jaguars had locally undergone major and expensive retrofits, depending on their operational lifespans to enhance, in varying degrees, their stand-off attack, strike range and target acquisition capabilities via the locally-developed Display, Attack, Ranging Inertial Navigation or DARIN-I, II and III avionics suite programme.Military analyst and retired Jaguar pilot Squadron Leader Vijainder K. Thakur stated that the DARIN upgrades were ‘pivotal in preserving the Jaguar’s relevance in the IAF’s overall modern aerial warfare architecture. Writing in the EurAsian Times in September 2024, he declared that in addition to enhancing the fighters’ combat capabilities, the upgrades had better facilitated the platform’s integration into the IAF’s network-centric warfare framework, resulting in more effective coordination with airborne early warning and control platforms and ground-based air-defence systems.Also read: Why the IAF Should Prioritise Fleet Uniformity, Not Unchecked DiversityAlongside, around 60 Jaguars, with durable airframes, had been shortlisted for fitment with Israel Aircraft Industries/Elta-supplied ELM-2025 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, following successful trials in August 2017. This radar was capable of tracking multiple targets, communicating in multiple frequencies via a higher bandwidth and performing ‘interleaved’ modes of operation with higher accuracy and image resolution.IAF sources indicated that alongside the AESA radar, the Jaguars also received a pod-mounted radar jammer – the Elta ELL-8212/22/ EL-8251- all of which collectively supplemented the DARIN-III avionics suite, keeping the Jaguar’s operationally relevant to the IAF for the next 10-14 years. The DARIN-III also supported a range of imported and locally developed weapon systems like US-origin AGM-84L Harpoon missiles, which arm Jaguar IM maritime strike fighters, Textron CBU-105 Sensor Fused Weapons procured from the US in 2010 and the European MBDA Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missiles acquired in 2014.Jaguar Display Attack Ranging Inertial Navigation (DARIN) aircraft at Republic Day Parade 2024. Photo: PIB, Government of India, via Wikimedia CommonsConsequently, despite their high attrition rate, the IAF estimated that a “substantial” number of the 120-odd remaining Jaguars would remain in service till 2030-32, principally to preclude a further drawdown of its fighter squadrons. These presently numbered around 29-30, some 11-12 squadrons fewer than the sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons to execute a two-front war against collusive nuclear-armed neighbours China and Pakistan. Sturdier and more robust Jaguars, however, could operate even till 2040, said Squadron Leader Thakur, but by reducing the aircraft’s monthly flying hours in order to nurture and preserve their total technical life.And while the IAF does not publicly disclose specific data on the monthly flying hours of any of its platforms, including Jaguars, industry sources indicated that these Anglo-French fighters needed around 20 hours of maintenance for each hour of flight. Such extensive upkeep, which multiplied with time as the platforms aged, reflected the challenges of operating an ageing fighter.But in the event of the IAF continuing to operate Jaguars till 2040 or thereabouts – which presently seems more than plausible – this hoary fighter would then have been in service with the force for some six decades, equalling the operational record of the Soviet-era MiG-21 variants that were ‘number plated’ or retired last September after 63 years.This leads to the immutable conclusion that the IAF, the world’s fourth-largest air force, expends a major proportion of its focus and energies on upgrades and retrofits of legacy aircraft, instead of centring its resources and thinking on acquiring modern platforms, despite frantic talk of doing so.