The SEPECAT Jaguar: The Tip of the Spear in the Cold War

at the height of the Cold War Europeans East and West were prepared for the worst caught in the middle of an arms race with memories of War on the continent still far too fresh to Bear France and the UK understood their roles as de facto leaders on the side of Europe that they could still count on and they understood that if open hostilities were to ever break out between the Soviets the Americans and by default the Europeans then those two countries would be the ones to lead the charge Eastward toward Moscow or that is as long as they didn't catch the bad end of an i C BM first and in order to do that they needed an attack aircraft one that could do more and better than the spindly winged first generation fighters of the jet age no they would need a modern plane one that could throw down with the best and come out on top their answer was the sepat Jaguar a formidable aircraft that could be armed to the teeth with the very best weapons that the 1960s had to offer it wouldn't make war with the Soviets easy nothing could do that but it could make the prospect of a battle far more painful for Moscow to bear and with the Jaguar at the tip of the European spear it would have to be [Music] enough now technology has a tendency to develop in Leaps and Bounds often moving on so fast that even the most expert decision makers struggle to keep up in the early years of the Cold War that was certainly trer than ever in the wake of World War II the world was dealing with so many technological advancements at once in so many different directions that the highest levels of world governments could hardly make sense of the trends that they were seeing and for a job with as high stakes responsibility as say preparing your country's military Arsenal for a potentially cataclysmic war that sort of confused indecision can be a major problem choose the right path forward then great but better to try something anything and to have it be the wrong path then do nothing at all it was this sort of hurried conjecture that led British defense minister Duncan sandies to issue a white paper report in 1957 in which he made a postulate that if proven true would turn the defense World on its head the age of the man's combat aircraft was over he proclaimed forget the Jet Plane forget the Strategic bomber it was all about the guided missile now with s's white became the red pen during the years of Sand's tenure as Minister of Defense then Aviation he slashed budgets and canceled programs for a wide range of British aircraft in development it's important to note that this wasn't an uncommon line of thinking for the time the United States and the Soviet Union were taking the same approach with their own missile technology but it did nonetheless have a major flaw sandies was wrong in the following years it was British Aviation that paid the price for his faulty assessment now scrambling to catch up after basically taking a few years off from a really important arms race when new proposals did emerge in sy's Wake they were tentative almost written as as if they were meant to be cancelled all except for one the 1962 proposal to design air staff Target 362 an advanced jet training aircraft that could do double duty as a light tactical strike plane in an air to ground attack role in the early days the design was simple named the p45 it was meant to be a platform for twin Rolls-Royce rb1 172 engines meant to push it to a top speed of Mac 1.7 very fast for the time but significantly less than what many analysts of the age believed would be the top speed for future aircra CRA but even though details were spotty on what else the aircraft would include it was interesting enough that it made the French Aerospace industry perk up and ask about it around this time France was looking for their own new advanced jet trainer also with the ability to carry out air strikes with the hopes of replacing aircraft like the f84f and the F100 super saber and the more France and Britain discussed their hopes for their own respective aircraft the more they realized that they were both looking for the same thing before long both both Nations had agreed to collaborate on a jet for a few reasons strengthening diplomatic relations integrating the British alses economy into Continental Europe a bit better splitting costs and perhaps even getting a NATO standard for an attack aircraft before we continue with today's video I do want to take a moment to tell you about our fantastic sponsor Squarespace I love Squarespace why is that well Squarespace is the ultimate all-in-one website for anyone looking to stand out and succeed online and who isn't looking to do that whether you're a budding entrepreneur or managing a Bo brand Squarespace is there to make your online easy Squarespace offers a ton of fantastic features and the standout for me absolutely as fluid engine it's like a magic wand for web design you start with a topnotch template and then you just sprinkle your 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Britain and France in 1965 it looked as if they'd be producing Two fighter jets a trainer and Light Strike plane and a dedicated Strike Fighter using a swing-wing design now for all purposes today we're going to spoil the ending on that swing-wing design basically it just didn't work out but the light attack aircraft was another matter entirely and within a year the French company brega and the British aircraft Corporation had formed a joint venture known by the French acronym of separat their plane would include a few key components a new new French designed landing gear system Advanced British Wing models and lift devices and the basic outline of a discarded French design known as the br21 the aircraft would have its production line split into two between Britain and France where Britain would produce a more advanced tactical strike version and France would be responsible for the trainer but while this all sounded great in theory it wasn't quite so simple in practice the attack version of the aircraft needed more bells and whistles than the trainer to the point that the French design it was based on was heavily reworked by the time production started it was made supersonic given an overhaul to its avionics and navigational systems provided with a Laser Rangefinder and fitted with a moving map display while on the outside the fuselage was redesigned the cockpit was shifted around the wings were thinned and it was given after burning engines for all intents and purposes it was like trying to disguise Usain Bolt as an average guy running a 5k just by putting him in funny glasses and a mustache as time went on the French and British designs continued to diver Verge and when the French company bre was taken over by Doo a larger Aerospace Corporation their designs were changed too France cancelled that second swing-wing fighter designed you to cost meaning that both countries were now so in terms of a dedicated strike aircraft but West Germany who'd been keeping an eye on the program were now looking to get in on the action and even place a few orders and to add on the pressure just a little bit more the General Dynamics F-111 arvar wasn't seen as a reliable replacement to fill that same role as a foreign import fighter all these factors were eventually enough to push the sepat program into predominantly an attack aircraft not a trainer and all parties involved began to settle in on a final design known as the Jaguar it would replace British F4 Phantoms as close support and tactical strike aircraft and replace the Eton Dar 4 on the French side while other models like Doo's Alpha jet would step into the void as a training aircraft the Jaguar's first prototype flew in September 1968 it crossed the sound barrier two flights later and by 1969 three of the prototypes made their debut at the Paris Air Show despite all the trouble Britain and France had finally been able to agree on what they wanted their aircrafts to be and by all accounts it was pretty damn cool the production line design of the sepat Jaguar sat at an overall length of 16.8 M from tip to tail 55 ft in a single pilot configuration although some models provided room for a second seat at a height of just 5 m 16 ft at the tip of its tail and a wingspan of under 9 M 28 1/2 ft it was unusually low and slim for an aircraft of that time with a tapered almost dart-like design that was meant for fast precise runs overr targets the plane sat at an empty weight of 7,000 kg under 8 tons pushed Along by two Rolls-Royce turbo arer engines also produced in collaboration between Britain and France despite its role primarily as a close air support and attack aircraft where contemporary designs like the A10 war toog or Su 25 froger to built to flight low and slow in order to maximize damage against Target the Jaguar was designed to go another route to deliver very heavy payloads at high speeds first let's discuss the high speed part at sea level the plane could hit 1,350 km/ hour 840 mph significantly above the speed of sound at altitude it could hit Mac 1.6 1700 km per hour or 1,56 mph it did possess the ability to fly slowly when needed with a landing speed of just 23 km/ hour 132 mph it could concentrate fire for a decent length of time before pulling up firing its engines and getting back to supersonic speeds post haste running just on internal fuel the Jaguar featured a respectable range for a ground attack plane of 85 km if it was flying high for most of its Journey or 575 km if it was hugging the ground those figures got a good bit better if it could add external fuel tanks plane featured a service ceiling of 14,000 M and could climb about 9,000 of those meters in just 90 seconds predictably for such a powerful set of engines it could also take off with just 580 M of Runway and needed even less space to land making it perfect to operate from forward airfields and auster environments and even though it should be no surprise to say that a ground attack aircraft could carry you know the ordinance required to attack ground targets that somewhat understates just how powerful the Jaguar was in addition to two 30 mm revolver cannons capable of firing 150 rounds each the Jagua was fitted with seven hard points six on the wings and one on the center line a remarkable exercise in space conservation when we consider just how narrow its wings were on those hard points it could carry up to eight rocket pots each carrying 1868 mm Rockets that's 144 in total although after you fire the first 100 there's probably nobody left on the ground to count the rest of them alternately the Jaguar could carry two Sidewinder missiles on its usual over-wing pylons or a combined 4,500 kg or 10,000 of other ordinance from anti- ship anti-radiation and anti-ra arm missiles to unguided or Precision bombs to reconnaissance pods to drop tanks to nuclear warheads in terms of its avionics the Jaguar was Advanced for its time with early versions featuring a double gyroscopic attack system eventually replaced by inertial navigation systems and a heads up display or HUD Al struggled with reliability the Jaguar featured a laser target marking system of significant improvements on what was available in competitor aircraft as time went on the plane was modified with better radar systems GPS and terrain reference navigation as well as a data link and compatibility with night vision goles although the base version of the Jaguar certainly wouldn't keep up with the modern aircraft today it was a valuable step been one uping the Soviet Union's air fleet and it proved remarkably able to keep Pace in the evolving world of aerial Warfare furthermore it was designed to be easily maintained in auster environments with repair Crews not needing so much as a ladder to get to most spots on the plane and it was known for its handling and even its acrobatic potential by pilots in the field funnily enough its rugged landing gear was one of its most interesting Design Elements the nose gear retracted by moving rearward but the main gear retracted by moving forward sort of pinching together in the center of the plane the French picked up 160 copies of the Jaguar a while the British acquired 165 Jaguar S variants with both the A and the S being each respective country single seater versions of the plane both variants were built for an all weather tactical strike and ground attack rooll with minor differences in their avionics Britain bought 38 copies of the Jaguar B while France bought 40 these were the two seat trainer version although Britains were equipped to fulfill a secondary attack role if they were ever needed France also worked hard to produce the Jaguar m a carrier capable varians and although though the M was eventually canceled in favor of a doo plane this move has been widely regarded as a mistake by France ever since it happened several other countries requested and were granted export versions of the Jaguar for themselves 35 went to India while 101 more were built there by an Indian Aerospace company using sepat specifications including 12 used as Maritime strike aircrafts Aman got 24 of the planes Nigeria picked up 18 and Ecuador received 12 in total 543 of the Jaguars would be built including all the Prototype production models variance and Export planes not quite putting it on par with the A10 or the su2 in terms of proliferation but nonetheless cementing it as a major player in the global balance of [Music] power so the Jaguar was first introduced to service in 1973 before long they were introduced into France's long list of military escapades and interventions in Africa immediately valued for its ruggedness and its ease of Maintenance in the field the Jaguar was flown rough air strips and what would eventually be known as Jaguar diplomacy to give you a brief taste of what sort of mediations Jaguar diplomacy consisted of it first saw combat attack in the polisario front a rebel nationalist group from Western Sahara who were at that time operating in the country of morania jaguars were the point aircraft in attacks that unleash Napal against polisario positions freeing up Railways carrying shipments of Val IR or that's aggressive negotiating to say the least in their service in Africa Jaguars were given a so-called sand and chocolate camouflage paint job one that would become well known in Chad in 1978 again in 1983 and again in 1986 all in attacks against Libyan Insurgent forces in the latter attack in 1986 Jaguars would crater a Libyan airbase and occupied Northern Chad and a year later they do the same thing to Libyan radar stations across all these operations combined a total of two Jaguars would be shot down with the loss of Just One Pilot and they were consistently protected from Libyan sabur who had hoped to take them out of play while on the tarmac in the following years France would make use of the jaguar in the first Gulf War where a force of 28 aircraft carried out over 600 combat sorties against Iraqi ships armored divisions and missile launch sites for those 600 sorties the French paid with damage to one Jaguar a plane that was able to return to base safely and be repaired because of issues with the Jaguar's navigation systems during this time they did need to be escorted around by Mirage planes for the early parts of the conflict but the Gulf War ended up being a nice opportunity to spruce up the Jaguars which needed sprucing up and anyway Britain would send its own Jaguars during the Gulf War using them to conduct specific targeting raids to create an illusion that a large amphibious invasion was coming by sea as speaking of the British the Jaguar would take over for the F4 Phantom during the mid1 1970s and despite complaints from its Pilots that the Jaguar was smaller than its predecessor and thus unable to carry quite as much explosive ordinance that auua proved itself excellent in low-level flight and in operations from auster environments and overall it was both more precise and a whole lot less dangerous to Pilot than the Phantom many of the British planes four squadrons in fact kept in nuclear Readiness posture in Central Europe glaring East towards Moscow but others would drop cluster bombs in the Gulf perform air strikes in the Balkans and enforce no fly zones over Iraq the Jaguar so impressed its British benefactors that plans to scale down its use in the 1990s were dropped and instead the Royal Air Force invested heavily into upgrading the planes and keeping them modern the planes got everything from new navigation attack systems to a computerized Mission planner to a helmet mounted sight system making them significantly more popular with RAF Pilots then of course there was the Jagua Service as an export craft in Ecuador they played a significant role in the regular dust ups that went on with neighboring Peru although they were mostly kept out of the Skies as an overt threat piss off Ecuador too badly and they'd send up the Jaguars Nigeria took up 18 of them and had hoped to buy more although the Jaguars proved to be eventually unaffordable for the then struggling nation and over in am man a small Squadron filled an air defense role for country rather than a ground attack responsibility generally speaking am man doesn't tend to get into too many wars and their Jaguars would have easily been refitted if that ever changed finally there's the question of India where the Jaguar is served proudly for decades under the Indian Air Force Nam shamer or Sword of Justice India is the only Export customer to indigenously produce its own Jaguars as well with those planes entering service in 1985 they saw brief action in Sri Lanka in 1987 mostly as a reconnaissance plane and they've been kept on Readiness in advance of a potential outbreak of hostilities with Pakistan with their ordinance flight systems and avionics upgraded with time in kill in 1999 they dropped bombs deep in Pakistani territory and while they've not been made India's official Nuclear Strike aircraft they've been kept around because they're one of the few Indian planes that could fill that role if needed but as the 1990s wore on into the 2000s the Jaguar inevitably began to show its age in France the Jaguar would be retired from their nuclear Readiness role in 1991 replaced by the desage 2000 over the following 10 years they'd see limited action in the Balkans but they'd be completely phased out of French service by 2001 in the UK the Jaguar would hold on through 2007 and even when the time did come to pull the plug it was over the loud objections of pilots and the British public alike in a man they wouldn't be fully retired until 2014 and in India they're still in service today but of course there's buckets and buckets of expensive upgrades to keep them relevant all in all it's tough to really pin down the legacy of the sepat Jaguar simply because it never really saw real real large scale Combat on the level of other renowned attack aircraft around the world although the Jaguar was vital in keeping a cold war posture for Britain France and India it served during a time when none of those countries embarked on major military Expeditions abroad and were not threatened by any imminent challenge to their own sovereignty in the conflicts where the Jaguar did serve it performed very well and it was well liked by the people charged with flying it but as for how well it would have done on the missions filled by comparable aircraft of its day well we'll never know but because the majority of that potential was just left on the [Music] [Music] runway

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 121,668

Keywords: sepecat jaguar, french jaguar, indian jaguar, french air and space force, french air force in gulf war, iaf jaguar, raf jaguar, indian jaguar modernization, royal air force, jaguar m, jaguar aircraft

Id: qWrzjMneENg

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 28 2023