IAF Jet Crash: Two fighter pilots were killed after a Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed near Churu in Rajasthan on Wednesday, July 9. The plane crashed in an agricultural field in Bhanoda village around 1.25 pm, police said.
“An IAF Jaguar Trainer aircraft met with an accident during a routine training mission and crashed near Churu in Rajasthan today. Both pilots sustained fatal injuries in the accident. No damage to any civil property has been reported,” IAF said in a post on X.
The Air Forces said it ‘deeply regrets’ the loss of lives and constituted a court of inquiry to ascertain the cause of the accident.
Wednesday’s accident is the third mishap involving a Jaguar since March this year. On March 7, an Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar ground attack fighter crashed near Panchkula during a routine sortie. On April 3, another Jaguar jet crashed in Gujarat’s Jamnagar. Flight Lieutenant Siddharth Yadav, the pilot of the aircraft, died in the crash.
These back-to-back accidents raise concerns about the safety of India’s aging Jaguar combat fleet that has been operational for five decades now.
The Jaguars were inducted into the IAF service nearly five decades ago in the 1970s. Today, the IAF is the world’s only air force that continues to operate some six squadrons of the Anglo-French twin-engine Jaguar IS/IB/IM variants.
Britain, Ecuador, France, Oman and Nigeria have all retired their Jaguar fighters years ago
The first batch of 40 Jaguars – Shamsher – was inducted into the IAF in fly-away condition from 1979 onwards. Thereafter, via a transfer of technology, another 100-odd were licence-built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) until 2008.
The Alternatives
Jaguars have been involved in over 50 minor and major accidents, like the recent ones, according to media reports. Past probes into many accidents and mishaps involving Jaguars pointed to engine failure, asserting the fact that these jets are long past their expiry date.
At times, analysts linked their ‘under-powered’ Rolls-Royce-Turbomecca Adour Mk811 engines to the mishaps.
For years, the Ministry of Defence (MoD), has been planning to ‘re-engine’ the Jaguars with the US-made Honeywell F-125IN turbofan power pack. This engine can provide the fighters with greater thrust. However, the plan was scrapped in August 2109 due to the high cost of the project.
Now, the IAF is expected to begin phasing out its older Jaguar models after 2027-28 onwards. But amid delays in acquiring the HAL Tejas Mk2, Rafale, and Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft, it is left with little choice but to extend the life of these outdated planes. The complete phasing out is scheduled by 2035-2040, according to media reports.
‘Yes, they are too old’
“India is flying because India has no other choice. We don’t make any aircraft, we have to only buy. The process of buying and selecting is cumbersome. We are also short of squardons. We are supposed to have 40 + and we are down to about 30. Jaguar like other aircrafts has crashed. I would not call it very dangerous,” Wing Commander Praful Bakshi (Retd) told a TV channel in April.
“Yes we are using them. They are too old.”
‘Aging like a fine wine’
Military analyst and retired Jaguar pilot squadron leader Vijainder K Thakur, however, suggests that retiring IAF Jaguars which are “aging like a fine wine,” would not be a great move.
Thakur suggests that, considering the relentless depletion of the IAF’s fighter inventory—due to delays in planned acquisitions and repeated timeline slippages in the Tejas Mk-1A program—the Jaguar phaseout could adversely affect the IAF’s operational capability.
“One reason why the Jaguar has remained relevant is that the IAF has adopted the fighter for medium-altitude stand-off strikes. We will look at the Jaguar’s medium altitude strike capability later in this narrative,”Thakur wrote in EurAsian Times last September.
Potent and somewhat underpowered
Thakur argued that the Russia-Ukraine conflict emphasised the continued relevance of a fighter jets like the Jaguar. The conflict has illustrated that low-level penetration of contested airspace by attack aircraft is far safer than medium-altitude penetration because of the widespread use of and increased capabilities of Air Defence systems, he said.
The Jaguar is now a potent platform despite being somewhat underpowered.
In India, during the Kargil War in 1999, the SEPECAT Jaguar played a significant role, particularly in reconnaissance and precision strikes.Jaguars were used for both reconnaissance and bombing missions, including the use of laser-guided bombs.
DARIN upgrades
Since its initial induction into the IAF in the early 1980s, the IAF has continuously upgraded the Jaguar to improve its stand-off attack, strike range, and target acquisition capabilities, according to Thakur.
These upgrades, Thakur wrote, referred to as DARIN (Display Attack Ranging Inertial Navigation) upgrades, were done in three phases – DARIN-1, DARIN-2 and DARIN-3.
The Inertial Nav-Attack System Integration Organization (IIO), a multiple agency unit set up by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), IAF and HAL built the DARIN system first in 1980s.
In 2008, for example, HAL, the state-owned military plane maker, decided to upgrade 68 so-called “deep penetration” Jaguar fighters with modern avionics in a contract valued more ₹2,400 crore that will increase the life and efficacy of the fighter planes.
“Clearly, the Jaguar is now a potent platform despite being somewhat underpowered. It could be retained in service longer than currently projected to prevent the unacceptable depletion of IAF fighter aircraft inventory. Indeed, that may well be the case,” wrote Thakur.
“However, longer service retention could only be achieved by reducing the aircraft’s monthly flying hours.”