A Honeywell F125N Turbofan engine

The Indian Air Force has launched a new drive to revamp its 118 Jaguar ground attack fighters with new engines, airframes and spares from overseas grounded fighters reports American defence website defensenews.com. The effort would also speed up the upgrade with new avionics, communication, active electronically scanned array radars and airborne weapon systems.

The IAF has 118 Jaguar fighters today. It began acquiring them way back in 1979 from the UK. This was followed up by licensed production of around 150 fighters by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL).

However, over the years the fighters became obsolete in their original form and had to be given progressive upgrades of avionics and weapon systems. But this in turn made the fighters overweight leading to several accidents and loss of lives, the report further adds.

Currently IAF and HAL are finalising a direct purchase of F-125IN engines from Honeywell U.S, the long-awaited $1.5 billion project to re-engine and upgrade five Jaguar squadrons. HAL will buy 200 F-125IN engines off the shelf from Honeywell at a cost of $5 million per piece for 80 Jaguar fighters. And once the fighters get their new F-125IN Honeywell engines, they should be able to fly beyond 2035. Of these, 160 engines will be integrated with 80 Jaguar fighters, and the remaining 40 engines will be kept for reserve. Currently, the IAF Jaguar fleet is powered by Adour Mk811 engines, made by the British firm Rolls-Royce.

The report also adds that under the new upgrade plan, HAL is also mounting active electronically scanned array EL/M-2052 radar from Elta of Israel, which will provide capability to simultaneously track enemy fighters, guide missiles, and jam enemy communications and radar. In addition, upgraded DARIN-III Jaguar fighters will be capable to launch AGM-88 HARM missiles and CBU-105 sensor-fuzed weapons. HAL has built 120 Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft under technology transfer from BAE Systems.

However, over the years the fighters became obsolete in their original form and had to be given progressive upgrades of avionics and weapon systems. But this in turn made the fighters overweight leading to several accidents and loss of lives, reports TOI.

None of this would have been necessary had procurement and induction of modern fighters gone ahead in a timely fashion.

With reporting by Defensenews.com and Times of India