India is finally giving its Jaguar ‘strike’ fighters some much-needed new teeth with advanced missiles, engines and avionics. Apart from having a maritime strike role as well, the Jaguars have long been identified by IAF as the jets capable of delivering nuclear weapons if required.
The IAF has issued a RFP (request for proposal) to M/s Honeywell Aerospace, the US-based manufacturer of aircraft engines and avionics, to ‘completely re-engine’ 125 Jaguars and provide 270 F-125IN turbofan engines.
Concurrently, IAF is all set for the first test-flight of a Jagaur fighter upgraded to ‘Darin-III’ standards by defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics, with new-generation avionics including a glass cockpit and autopilot, next month.
Grappling with only 34 fighter squadrons when at least 44 are needed to be ‘comfortable’ against Pakistan and China, IAF has been progressively going in for upgrade of its existing fighters as well as planning new inductions to retain its aerial combat ratio while phasing out the old MiG variants.
IAF already has upgrade projects underway for 51 Mirage-2000s for Rs 17,547 crore and 63 MiG-29s for $964 million, even as it inducts 272 Sukhoi-30MKIs at a cost upwards of $12 billion. Then, it plans to induct 126 French Rafale fighters in the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project.
For futuristic requirements, IAF is looking at inducting over 200 stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft from 2022 onwards, after joint development and production with Russia, at an overall cost that will eventually touch $35 billion.
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