India for the previous few years has been importing retired British, French and Omani Jaguars together with separate elements to produce spares to its present fleet.
The Indian Air Drive (IAF), the one remaining operator of the Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar strike plane, has obtained 9 retired Royal Air Drive (RAF) plane because the starting of this 12 months, British Parliamentary proceedings revealed on Jul. 3, 2026. The knowledge was revealed in a written response by MP and Secretary of State for Defence Luke Pollard to a question raised by Ben Overweight-Jecty, who requested what number of retired Jaguars have been transferred to India since Jan. 1, 2026.
Pollard put the determine at 9, specifying these included 5 GR1 variants and 4 twin-seat T2 trainers. The variants employed by India have been developed from the GR1, also called Jaguar S, and the T2, also called Jaguar B.
This growth follows stories from December 2025 about New Delhi additionally trying to purchase spares from 20-24 ex-Omani jets – whereas contemplating retired Nigerian and Ecuadorian plane – to maintain its fleet flying. A picture on Reddit in June, shared by consumer ‘MindCorrupt’, additionally purported to point out three Jaguars with out the wings in protecting masking at an unidentified port within the UK, with the thread saying the plane have been destined for India.
A question despatched to India’s MoD and the IAF spokesperson Wing Commander Jaideep Singh didn’t elicit a response on the time of writing.
France and the UK retired their Jaguars in 2005 and 2007, respectively. India, nevertheless, remains to be pressured to function these older fighters to keep away from functionality gaps, amid the retirement of the MiG-21, delays within the LCA Tejas Mk1A as a result of late deliveries of the GE F404-IN20 engines, the brand new Rafales nonetheless just a few years away, no plans for a Su-30MKI engine improve and the fifth technology Superior Medium Fight Plane (AMCA) nonetheless reported to be on the drafting board.
🚨 BIG: The UK has formally confirmed the switch of 9 retired Jaguar fighter jets to India. 🇮🇳✈️
These plane received’t return to fight however they’ll play a vital function in holding the Indian Air Drive’s Jaguar fleet mission-ready with spare elements.
With 42 extra Jaguars nonetheless… pic.twitter.com/2tmZqvK8jM
— BharatVoxx 🇮🇳 (@BharatVoxx) July 6, 2026
Notably, IAF Jaguars, together with Su-30MKIs, have additionally skilled with British F-35Bs as a part of mock provider strikes on the HMS Prince of Wales throughout final 12 months’s Train Konkan.
Retired Jaguars’ switch
The UK held in storage a complete of 51 retired Jaguars earlier than the switch of the 9 plane to India. Pollard gave a quick breakup of the present decommissioned Jaguar fleet nonetheless throughout the nation: “Of the 42 Jaguar plane the Ministry of Defence nonetheless holds, 13 are the GR1 variant and none are the T2 variant.”
Pollard’s response doesn’t specify the composition of the remaining 29 airframes, which the query’s scope didn’t cowl. The stability of the surviving fleet could be anticipated to comprise a mixture of the upgraded GR3 single seaters and T4 twin seaters.
India Receives 9 Decommissioned Jaguar Assault Plane From the UK
India stays the final nation working Jaguar plane, identified domestically because the Shamsher. Because the platform has lengthy been out of manufacturing and authentic spare elements have gotten more and more scarce,… pic.twitter.com/Xxqfyn59WM
— Agnika (@AntarAgnika) July 6, 2026
The Omani effort in the meantime was channeled by means of the thirteenth Joint Army Cooperation Committee assembly on Nov. 24, 2025. The procurement from the Gulf nation can also be what IAF officers particularly describe as a “Christmas tree” buy, shopping for solely chosen spares and elements, as an alternative of your complete airframes, of which almost two dozen needs to be obtainable.
India’s ex-Jaguar cannibalizing efforts
This isn’t the primary time India has bought retired Jaguars from former customers as a supply of spares for its fleet, particularly after HAL ceased manufacturing. In 2018, India acquired 31 retired Jaguars from France to cannibalize elements.
In response to The Wire, Oman additionally offered two further plane with eight Rolls-Royce Adour Mk 811 engines and three,500 strains of spares. The UK equally bought two twin-seater Jaguars and 619 rotables for round $400,000.
The UK simply despatched India 9 lifeless jets to maintain previous ones alive. 🇮🇳
These are retired RAF Jaguars, 5 GR1s and 4 T2s, headed straight into India’s spare elements pool.
Here’s what this elements deal really reveals in regards to the state of India’s Jaguar fleet and why the IAF nonetheless… pic.twitter.com/v9AV9dYlvJ
— Army Observer (@TheMilObserverr) July 6, 2026
The IAF’s Jaguar fleet, as per the most recent rely within the World Air Forces 2026 report stands at 130 plane, following three losses in 2025, with different assessments estimating 120 jets. These are unfold throughout six squadrons, every sometimes working 18 to twenty airframes.
The dual-engine Anglo-French jet stays the mainstay of the service’s battlefield interdiction mission – a task it phrases because the Deep Penetration Strike Plane (DPSA). The plane started getting into IAF service in 1979, with the primary 40 jets bought in a flyaway situation.
Subsequent examples have been license-built between the Eighties and 2008 by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Restricted (HAL) in a technology-transfer by SEPECAT – the Joint Enterprise between France Breguet and the UK’s British Plane Company. Regionally known as the “Shamsher” (brave sword), the IAF’s Jaguar IS, IB and the maritime strike IM variants plane subsequently underwent the domestically-evolved Show Assault Ranging Inertial Navigation I, II and III (DARIN I/II/III) upgrades.
Indian Jaguars marred by lack of a brand new engine
The IAF’s Jaguars have lengthy flown with the antiquated Rolls-Royce Adour Mk 811 afterburning turbofans, whose cancelled substitute restricted the distinctive capabilities of the DARIN III commonplace. DARIN III arrived in 2008, when the jet’s defining Israeli Elta EL/M-2052 Energetic Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) made it the primary jet within the IAF’s fleet with such a sensor, adopted by a primary flight in 2012.
The Jaguar is a twin engine strike plane within the IAF’s stock. It has the potential to execute precision strikes, deep inside adversary’s territory.
📸 @AviationWall, @AviationKedar, @neel385#IAFCapabilities#IndianAirForce pic.twitter.com/VAa1QJSQGL
— Indian Air Drive (@IAF_MCC) Could 23, 2022
Different DARIN III options embrace a totally digital glass cockpit with three multifunction shows; a brand new digital engine and flight instrument system (EFIS) digital shows; a digital Heads-Up Show (HUD); a brand new Israeli-made Elbit Show and Sight Helmet (DASH) used to cue to the Superior Brief-Vary Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM); and integration of the U.S.-made AGM-84L Harpoon anti-ship missile.
🔴İngiltere, emekli Jaguar savaş uçaklarını Hindistan’a devrediyor!
🔹İngiltere, SEPECAT Jaguar saldırı uçaklarını envanterden çıkarmasından uzun süre sonra, 9 adedini, yaşlanan Jaguar filosunun hizmette kalmasını desteklemek amacıyla Hindistan’a devretti.
🔹1974 yılında… pic.twitter.com/BE1F40eygA
— M5 Dergi (@M5Dergi) July 6, 2026
Nevertheless, the jet additionally wanted improved kinematic efficiency and maintainable engines, for which a possible candidate was the Honeywell F125-IN powerplant. The $13.2 million program was cancelled in 2019 after its value was deemed too exorbitant.
Whereas the explanations behind the almost dozen Jaguar crashes between 2015 and 2025 usually are not formally identified, IAF pilots have steadily lamented the Adour Mk 811’s poor thrust that restricted maneuverability.
