Deputy Chief of Air Staff Rakesh Bhaduria signalled his pilots would be satisfied with the upgraded jaguars by undertaking a sortie at the HAL airport in Bangalore.
“The DARIN III Upgrade is one of best upgrades in terms of data handling and overall capabilities,” he said after the flight. Test Pilot of Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment, Wg Cdr V Prabhakaran was the co-pilot in the test flight,’’ said a HAL press release.
“The aircraft has been retrofitted with world class avionics system and will enable the aircraft to carry the Textron built CBU-105 sensor fused precision guided weapon system acquired from U.S., which has the ability to cripple enemy concentrations using a cluster of smart
bombs,” added the release.
The upgrade includes new state of the art avionics, Engine & Flight Instrument System (EFIS), Fire Control Radar, Inertial Navigation System with GPS and Geodetic height correction, Solid State Digital Video Recording System (SSDVRS), Solid State Flight Data Recorder (SSFDR), Smart Multi-Function Display (SMD), Radio Altimeter with 20000 ft range, Autopilot with Alt Select & HNAV and Identification of Friend or Foe (IFF).
Honeywell’s F 125 IN Turbofan engines have replaced the original Rolls Royce Mk 811 engines. Honeywell has already expressed interest in setting up a production facility for F 125 engines in India to facilitate the upgradation under the Make in India program. It is expected that all 120 plus Jaguar strike fighters in service with the Indian Air Force (IAF) will be fitted with the F 125 IN engines within a decade.
The aircraft was developed in the late 1960s as a supersonic trainer with secondary ground attack roles. In 1978, India signed a contract for 165 Jaguar fighters with UK, of which 35 were procured in fly away condition while others were assembled at HAL. India is currently the only operator of the Jaguar after Oman retired its fleet in 2014.
The Jaguar upgrade is crucial for the IAF’s strike fleet as India has decided to retire the Mig-27 fleet by 2017. The IAF currently operates four squadrons (80 aircraft) of the Mig-27 with two squadrons based at Kalaikunda in West Bengal (to be retired first) and two squadrons based at Jodhpur in Rajasthan (to be retired later).
