The Jaguar was one of the pioneers of the European joint aviation programmes.
In the beginning, many had not truly believed this adventure.
Even the French Minister of Defence at that time told once his British counterpart that
he never understood at all why they were working together.
But, eventually, the project was successfully executed, and the aircraft repeatedly proved
itself in real combat.
Now, we are investigating the legendary Jaguar, the beloved and missed wild cat of the skies.
The Jaguar was not a high-tech and fancy aircraft for even its time.
Yet, it was a pure-blood warrior.
So, today, many senior British and French pilots, who fought in Afghanistan and Mali,
are admitting that they are missing the good old Jaguar.
It was one of the early examples of joint aviation programmes in Europe.
Since the end of the Second World War, the political, technological, economic, and industrial
superiority of the leading European countries had faded.
France and the UK had lost their many traditional customers to the USA.
So, they decided to leave the competition aside in the market.
It was time to become partners.
In that years, France and the UK were looking for a new jet trainer.
Yet, these countries had different approaches.
France wanted a trainer with light attack capability, while the UK needed to have an
attacker, which would also perform training missions.
The main operation area of the French Air Force was Africa.
So, a simple subsonic aircraft was enough.
However, the main concern of the Royal Air Force was the possible Third World War against
the Warsaw Pact.
The Brits wanted to use advantage of the latest blessings of technology.
Even so, two factors helped France and the UK to continue their journey together.
First, these countries had to work together for competing with the USA in the aviation
industry.
And, the increasing capabilities of the Soviet high and medium-altitude air defence missiles
changed the concepts.
Until the early 1960s, to avoid the Soviet interceptor, the Western bombers had flown
at high altitudes.
But, now they needed a new type of combat aircraft, which could conduct low altitude
deep strike missions.
So, the British Aircraft Corporation and the French Breguet began to develop an aircraft
called Jaguar based on this concept.
These two aviation companies founded SEPECAT as a joint venture.
Actually, SEPECAT was a ghost company.
It had neither an executive building nor a facility.
Nobody was directly its employee.
Its staff, such as the engineers, accountants, administrators and technicians, were being
borrowed from the parental companies whenever necessary.
This method eliminated the complicated bureaucratic procedures and enabled rapid resolution of
many issues.
The Jaguar was based on the previous Br.121 design of Breguet.
But, the designs of some important parts, such as the wing and the high lift devices,
belonged to British engineers.
In that years, the Brits were using the imperial measurement system, while the French were
using the metric system.
In 1968, the UK declared that it was planning to begin to use the metric system.
The French were happy because their workload would decrease.
However, their heart sank into their boots.
The imperial measurement system was used at every stage of the Jaguar’s development.
The Adour after-burner turbofan engine of the Jaguar was also the fruit of another joint
venture formed between Rolls-Royce and Turbomeca.
But, this joint venture was behind schedule.
It had to produce six engines for the first three prototypes of the Jaguar.
However, Rolls-Royce and Turbomeca managed to deliver only three Adours.
The engineers had to alternately equip the prototypes with these engines.
Despite all setbacks, the Jaguar made its first flight on September 8, 1968.
The Jaguar entered into service of the French Air Forces in 1972.
The Royal Air Force received its first aircraft one year later.
At the beginning of the programme, the French and British pilots were not happy about the
Jaguar.
On paper, the aircraft was needlessly complicated for the French, while it was too simple for
the Brits, who had demanded a high-tech one.
However, soon, they fell in love with this flying feline.
Actually, the Jaguar could not fully meet the French Air Force's initial design criteria
of 10.5 maintenance man-hours per flight hour and one overhaul per 1000 hours.
Even so, the well-trained French technicians managed to keep the aircraft operational.
They improvised many “off-the-book” maintenance techniques.
But, unlike the current ultra-modern combat aircraft, this wild cat was not capricious.
It could go to the fight by improvised solution.
The Royal Air Force was also happy with the forgiving design of the Jaguar.
In an exercise, twelve British Jaguars managed to serve in 12 days with 90 per cent combat
readiness.
The Jaguar had overwing pylons, which endowed it with an unusual and attractive outlook.
The Royal Air Force's aircraft gained this capability in the buildup to Operation Granby
in 1990.
However, the French Jaguars were never fitted with the overwing pylons.
In the early 1970s, many countries needed similar aircraft.
The Jaguar had great marketing potential.
Germany, Australia, Argentine, Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, and New Zealand were
the closest candidates.
However, In 1971, Breguet merged with Dassault.
Dassault had its own alternative models, which could compete with the Jaguar.
The company, which was a 50 per cent shareholder of the project, did not look with favour on
the marketing of the Jaguar, while it had its fully-owned aircraft.
But, thanks to the British's efforts, the Jaguar gained considerable marketing success.
Ecuador, France, Nigeria, Oman, and the UK are former users of the aircraft.
The Jaguar is still in the service of the Indian Air Force.
The basic single-seat version of the Jaguar had a length of 16.83 metres, a wingspan of
8.69 metres, and a height of 4.89 metres.
Its wing area was 24.18 square metres.
The empty weight of the aircraft was 7,000 kilograms, while its maximum take-off weight
was 15,700 kilograms.
Two 23.4 kiloNewton Rolls-Royce / Turbomeca Adour Mk 104 afterburner turbofan engines
provided a maximum speed of Mach 1.6.
It could climb an altitude of 14,000 metres.
The aircraft could reach a range of 3,524 kilometres.
The Jaguar's combat radius was 852 kilometres.
The aircraft had two 30mm internal guns.
It could carry the AIM-9 and Magic air-to-air missiles, AS-30L air-to-surface missile, AS.37
Martel, Rudram-1 anti-radiation missiles, Sea Eagle, AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles,
and rocket pods, as well as bombs, including nuclear ones.
The basic two-seated version of the aircraft had a length of 17.53 metres.
The French versions had a double gyroscopic system and a Doppler radar.
The British Jaguars had an inertial navigation system, a heads-up display, and a laser ranging
and marked targeting system.
So, these two national variants had different noses.
At the beginning of the programme, the French Navy had also intended to acquire the carrier-based
M version of the Jaguar to replace its existing Étendard IVs.
However, by using the impact of budget cuts and nationalist discourse, Dassault managed
to make the French government terminate this programme in favour of its Super Étendard.
The Royal Air Force often used its Jaguars in reconnaissance missions.
In the low-altitude reconnaissance missions, the aircraft was being equipped with the Infrared
Line Scan reconnaissance pod containing two high-oblique across-track F95 Mark 10 cameras
with 3 inches F2 lenses.
For medium-altitude reconnaissance, the aircraft was carrying an F126 camera with a 6 inches
F5.6 lens.
Naturally, during their service lives, the avionics and mission equipment of the Jaguars
had been constantly updated.
India produced the Jaguar under licence.
This model called Shamshir had some differences from the original British variants.
The aircraft had the Adour Mk 811 engines.
Besides, the Indian Air Force preferred the Magic air-to-air missile instead of the Sidewinders.
Some Shamshirs were equipped with the Agave radar and the Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles.
The aircraft have also received new avionics and mission equipment.
Soon, these aircraft will begin to be equipped with the more powerful Honeywell F125IN engines
as well as the EL/M-2052 active electronically scanned array radars.
A single converted Jaguar called Jaguar Active Control Technology was also used as a testbed
for the fly-by-wire controls system of the Eurofighter.
Although it's not a real Jaguar variant, we have to mention the Japanese F-1 and T-2.
In the mid-1960s, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force was seeking a new jet trainer.
Japan intended to produce the Jaguar under licence.
But, the negotiations failed.
So, Japan developed its own aircraft called T-2, which closely resembled the Jaguar.
The F-1 was the strike version of the T-2.
On November 23, 1973, The French Air Force deployed the aircraft to Senegal.
Nine days later, the Jaguar was baptized with fire.
By three aerial refuellings, they hit the Polisario Front targets, which were 1,500
kilometres away.
Five years later, with a single loss, the French Jaguars contributed to halting an offensive
of the Polisario Front.
The loss rate of the Jaguars in Chad was higher.
France lost four aircraft.
Yet, the Jaguar made a huge impact.
On February 16, 1986, during Operation Épervier, 11 French Jaguars hit the Libyan airfield
at Wadi Doum in Northern Chad.
On 7 January 1987, a Jaguar destroyed a Libyan radar with a Martel missile.
During the 1991 Gulf War, 28 French Jaguars carried out 615 sorties.
Twelve of them bombed the Al Jaber airbase.
Iraqi forces managed to damage four Jaguars.
One of them was hit by the SA-7 Grail missile.
Yet, all French pilots safely returned homes.
In 1993, the French Jaguars took off from Corsica and bombed the Serbian targets.
This was an important historical event.
France had bombarded European territory for the first time after the Second World War.
During the Kosovo War, 12 Jaguars carried out 341 sorties.
They dropped 108 laser-guided bombs and marked targets for the Mirage F-1s.
Some French pilots claim that many Jaguar'cockpit smelled gunpowder due to their excessive combat
careers.
The British Jaguars gained their first combat experiences during the 1991 Gulf War.
The Royal Air Force used them for raids on highly strategic targets.
They also contributed to the destruction of Iraqi anti-ship missile batteries and the
vessel of the Iraqi Navy.
Afterwards, the British Jaguars successfully fought in the Balkans.
The Indian Shamshirs participated in the Kargil War.
The Ecuadorian Jaguars were used in border conflicts with Peru.
They were used mainly for ground attack roles and occasionally for air superiority duties.
Due to budget cuts, the Jaguar was withdrawn from service in France in 2004.
Three years later, Her Majesty's wild cat roared for the last time.
Because of the economic problems, Nigeria could only keep them in service for seven
years.
Ecuador retired the Jaguars in the early 2000s due to difficulties in finding spare parts.
The last of the Omani aircraft bid farewell to the skies in 2014.
Fortunately, the Indian Jaguars still defy the time.
The beautiful big cat of the skies could not find its rightful place in the international
market.
But, it was one of the first examples to prove what European aviation companies can achieve
when they work together.
Its success has paved the way for many other European aviation programmes.
The Jaguar brought its enemies to their knees with its destructive claws.
The aircraft fought successfully on four continents and won the hearts of military enthusiasts.
With all its achievements, the Jaguar has become an unforgettable legend.
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