The countries which made it and used them, are already ready to scrap them and we are now going to upgrade our Jagaurs which are not really going to be useful against enemy air defences? The ERA where Jagaur was the top dog is gone, it may not be able to get into enemy air space as it could a decade ago. Jaguar might best have its use as CAS plane, but not really as deep strike plane anymore as there are now sophisticated enemy air defences and no more reliance on the useless SA-7
Believe it or not, Jaguar is currently the most survivable aircraft in IAF fleet. The tech and self-defence suites that Jaguar DARIN-III has, are things that Su-30MKI, Tejas, Mirage and MiG-29 simply do not.
Yes, its not designed with Air combat as primary emphasis, but I think you are seriously underestimating the capability of Jaguar. It is actually very agile platform and equipped with modern defences & missiles like Pythoon-5/ASRAAM, it is not to be slighted. If slighted, be ready to be surprised, like F-15s were at Red Flag.
But it will be provided fighter escort nonetheless for air cover. Nevertheless the type of low-level flight characteristics (crucial for evading air defences and sometimes evading detection itself) that Jaguar has, no other plane in our inventory has. IAF knows this.
It's also the only aircraft currently certified to launch CBU-105 SFWs, which can have incredible effects on ground targets that no normal cluster bomb can deliver.
Only Rafale is superior on all counts. But 36 Rafales (we did not, as of yet, order any more) cannot replace ~130 Jaguars and ~100 MiG-27s. So until we have adequate numbers of Rafales, IAF is justified to want to keep the Jaguar in top shape as long as possible.
What is UK doing? using them? France using them? Oman?? So wonder why they are trying to scrap the plane and we are buying them?
No they're not using them because they don't need do. They received adequate quantity of modern aircraft as replacements. IAF on the other hand is not.
Tejas nowhere near FOC.
36 Rafales not enough.
FGFA program ended (at least for now).
In this situation, IAF has 2 choices: 1) Don't get any spares, and let Jag fleet rot & crash just like the MiGs. 2) Get spares, keep fleet operational long as possible. It's a bonus that we got said spares for free (at least in case of France and Oman).
The IAF chief would be an idiot too, just having numbers does not count, the numbers should be credible, Using more jaguars to show that we have more squadrons is really lack of very common sense. We shall become an air force of numbers which perhaps even J-10 B can over run the same way as the French were rolled over by the Germans ... in 30 days
Believe what you will. IAF chief is idiot. DM is idiot. PM is idiot.
Only you are enlightened one. Anyone who doesn't see the world in same perspective as you do is an idiot. Fine.
Why should be we keep 3rd gen strike planes when 5th Gen era has started, rather the 6th Gen Era will start soon
....a 3rd gen plane which has AESA radar which your so-called 4.5 gen Wunderwaffes like Su-30MKI do not.
To preserve notional squadron strength because the Indian government doesn't have enough money to replace all its old aircraft at once.
Exactly. If IAF was provided the type and number of aircraft it desired, there would have been no need to keep old types flying.
At one hand we refuse to order sufficient number of aircraft of sufficient capability, and then blame IAF for wanting to keep older types operational.
Because if there's a war tomorrow - its the 3rd gen aircraft you have today which will do the fighting; not the 4th gen type that doesn't have FOC and cannot fire its gun, or the 5th gen type that only exists on paper.
