Indian Air Force looks to Oman for SEPECAT Jaguar airframes to sustain the fleet
As the only operator of the type still flying it today, the Indian Air Force is reportedly aiming to buy surplus aircraft from Oman to help keep its ageing, Anglo-French–built SEPECAT Jaguar jets in service. Oman retired its Jaguars in 2014, and local media report that the Sultanate once fielded 27 examples-previously operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF)-but a run of accidents is said to have reduced the pool to roughly 14 airframes that could realistically be of use to New Delhi for spares.
Oman’s Jaguar inventory and the plan to break aircraft for parts
Oman began bringing the Jaguar into service in 1977. Its holdings included 20 single-seat variants, five two-seat aircraft, and two additional airframes set aside specifically for spares.
It is not clear which aircraft make up the estimated group of around 14 still viewed as usable, nor whether the airframes lost in accidents could, if required, still be accessed and stripped so their components can bolster the Indian Air Force’s stocks. In any event, even the aircraft that remain intact would be dismantled in Oman and used solely as a source of spare parts.
India’s long-running SEPECAT Jaguar deep-strike role
India has operated the Jaguar since 1978, employing it primarily in a deep-strike capacity. In the first stage, the country took delivery of 18 aircraft transferred directly from the RAF, followed by a further 40 supplied by the company then known as British Aerospace.
To expand numbers further, India later added 128 additional aircraft produced domestically by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under a technology-transfer arrangement. The final locally built aircraft left the production line in 2008, by which point neither France nor the United Kingdom still had the type in production.
Previous “cannibalisation” efforts: French airframes delivered in 2018
If the currently discussed arrangement is completed, it would not be the first occasion on which India has turned to retired fleets from partner nations to sustain its Jaguar force. With spare-part availability increasingly problematic, New Delhi received roughly thirty airframes from France in 2018 at no cost other than transport; France had already withdrawn its Jaguars from service in 2005.
Those components continue to support India’s six Jaguar squadrons, each operating approximately 20 aircraft.
DARIN upgrades for the Indian SEPECAT Jaguar: DARIN, DARIN II and DARIN III
Alongside sourcing parts, India’s defence industry has pursued a sequence of upgrades for the Indian SEPECAT Jaguar fleet, grouped into the three phases of the Display Attack Ranging and Inertial Navigation (DARIN) programme.
Initially-consistent with the programme’s name-the work centred on fitting new Sagem navigation systems, updated cockpit displays, and a new computer intended to ease the integration of additional weapons. A later phase, DARIN II, launched during the 2000s, also introduced a Thales-developed laser targeting system, plus a new Israeli-made enemy jamming suppression system and modern countermeasures, among other improvements.
Subsequently, in 2008, India initiated DARIN III with the aim of installing an Elta EL/M-2052 AESA radar, also developed by Israeli industry-making the Jaguar the first aircraft in Indian service to field that capability. The plan also covered the addition of a new mission computer and replacing the ageing Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour engines with Honeywell F125-IN models; however, that re-engining effort was cancelled in 2019 after major delays and cost overruns. With what could be seen as an optimistic target, India intends to keep the Jaguar in service until 2050, although withdrawals are expected to start considerably sooner.
Wider Indian Air Force force-structure pressures
In any case, the scale of work required to keep the Jaguar fleet viable points to broader structural issues within the Indian Air Force-particularly the challenge of meeting the government-mandated objective of 42 squadrons. Currently, India fields 29 squadrons, a gap made worse by the recent retirement of its increasingly obsolete MiG-21 fighters. Meanwhile, procurement for as many as 114 new aircraft is progressing slowly, and no specific platform has yet been selected.
Images used for illustrative purposes
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