Tuesday, March 3, 2020

The Jaguars weren't used because of three reasons

Though I'm not an Expert in matters Related to Airpower and Air Ops but I'll try to list some reasons why Jags weren't used
The Jaguars weren't used because of three reasons
  1. Electronic Warfare Capability , Fly By Wire and other Technological aspects - Mirage 2000 has necessary avionics and technology like a fly-by-wire flight control system and has a Sextant VE-130 HUD, which displays data related to flight control. It carries a Thomson-CSF RDY (Radar Doppler Multi-target) radar on board. the Mirage 2000 has a Pretty damn good EW Capability then the Jaguar . In fact No.1 Squadron Tigers (Equipped with Mirage 2000) has Additional Role of Electronic warfare apart From Air Interdiction and Strike Role . The ECM (Electronic Counter Measure) plays Critical role in such ops to beat the enemy Radar and of course the Mirage 2000 is Notches ahead of Jaguar in these terms now the JAGUAR under the DARIN III Upgrade has addressed the Radar in Jaguar. In Fact Jaguar has good Navigation System but not Good Radar specially required for such operations where Stealth , Deception and surprise plays a Critical role when the Aircraft is In Mid Air .
  2. Weapons selection and Weapons Platform- The Weapon selected for the operation was Spice 2000 Which is not a Bomb but a “Guidence Kit” attached to the Bomb wherein GPS Coordinates and High Resolution image of Target . The SPICE guidance kit consists of two pieces -- one is attached to the bomb's head and the other is attached at the end.The first piece has a camera located at its tip while the second piece is essentially a fin allowing a bomb outfitted with SPICE-2000 to glide.Now, before a mission, an elaborate mission plan is readied on ground. Once the target is decided, air force personnel feed all kinds of data into a memory chip. The data includes GPS coordinates of the target, satellite images of the target, information about the land around the target and the angle at which the bomb should strike the target.The two SPICE-2000 pieces are then attached to a bomb and the memory chip is inserted into the SPICE kit. Fighter jets carrying the SPICE-2000 'smart bombs' then take off for the mission.Once the fighter jets reach a pre-determined location and height, they drop these smart bombs. The SPICE-2000's onboard computer then takes over and uses the data stored in the memory chip to glide the bomb towards the target.
In Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 was the only Aircraft on which this Weapon can be Integrated , in fact post BALAKOT AIR STRIKES IAF has Initiated the process to Integrate the weapon on Su 30 mki . The main purpose of Using this weapon was for Leadership Killing and Hitting the Target Precisely and to Reduce Collateral Damage in fact IAF didn't hit the Mosque that was there in Target area . If IAF had intended to create Havoc then they Might have used BRAHMOS launched from Su 30mki and Pakistan Air Force Wouldn't have been able to Track the Supersonic BRAHMOS as the Pakistanis didn't had Terminal Air Defence in Place because of lack of Coordination between PAF And ISI as PAF wasn't aware that ISI was running terrorist training Centre in Jaabah top in BALAKOT.
3. Agelity Factor - As you mentioned in your question called Jaguar is “Deep Penetration Strike Aircraft” whereas Mirage 2000 is “Multirole Fighter Aircraft”. Though the Su 30mki were also in the Strike Package in role of Air superiority Fighter but it stayed in Indian Airspace as per some sources and Mirage only Crossed the Indian Airspace .In case of any Dogfight or Air Combat if Pakistan would have scrambled it's F-16 from Sargodha then Su 30 would have Vectored towards the F-16 and or the Mirage 2000 equipped with MBDA MICA BVR(Beyond Visual Range Missile) Could have engaged F-16. The Jaguar Doesn't have BVR Capability. The top speed Jaguar is 1700 Km/hr whereas top speed of Mirage is 2,330 Km/hr.
A Package (Avengers Formation) Comprising of 3 Mirage 2000 and 2 Su 30mki. Mirage in Strike Role and Su 30 in Air Superiority role . Pakistan of 27th Feb Claimed that apart from Mig 21 Bison it also Shot Down a Su 30mki who's call Sign was AVENGER. Although it was a False Claim they clearly Reffered to this Formation .
But quiet Interesting If you refer to Air Marshal C Hari Kumar's interview he mentioned that when the Strike Package was approaching towards Release Point to drop the Spice 2000 an EARLY WARNING SYSTEM was seen near the Murid (near Rwalpindi) 4 Jaguar from Ambala and 2 Su 30mki’s were Scrambled from Sirsa/Halwara towards Bahawalpur as Decoy to Distract PAF's focus towards Bahawalpur Area (Jaish-E-Mohammed's Base) where Airspace was on High Alert but it Didn't crossed Indian Airspace.

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