XX833 continues to provide stalwart support - but is the sun beginning to set on the Jaguar?
It is an operational and frontline success, but Jaguar improvements may yet be butchered by the UK Treasury's axeDouglas Barrie/London
That the UK Government is considering axeing the Royal Air Force's fleet of Sepecat Jaguars - despite its avowed desire for smart procurement - appears a case of scrapping a programme which provides an alternative procurement template to the classic big bang upgrade approach.
The fate of the RAF's three Jaguar squadrons, based at Coltishall in Norfolk, will be determined by the outcome of the Government's Strategic Defence Review (SDR). As the Treasury searches for savings, the RAF's Jaguars are under immense pressure, although senior RAF officers vow to battle to save the type.
It is clearly a fight they believe to be worthwhile. From being the RAF's forgotten combat aircraft, the Jaguar has benefited from a renaissance with what are effectively a series of rolling upgrade projects providing the air force with a combat aircraft well suited for operations of low and medium level intensity.
The Jaguar's initial return to favour began with the emergence of an Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) 41/94 , to carry the GEC-Marconi Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator (TIALD) and laser guided free-fall bombs. The UOR covered the upgrade of 12 aircraft, and included the introduction of the 1553 digital databus.
In the event, 11 of the 12 aircraft were converted to the UOR standard with deliveries between late 1994, and the beginning of 1996. The aircraft was deployed in Bosnia with operational bomb drops carried out. The twelfth aircraft was to become the trial installation aircraft for what is now known as Jaguar 96, implemented by the Defence Evaluation Research Agency (DERA) and RAF's Logistics Command, with industry support.
The Jaguar 96 upgrade was a far wider package across the whole fleet to enhance significantly the aircraft's combat utility, thus extending its service life. With the delays to the Eurofighter EF2000, the RAF's planned out-of-service date for the Jaguar was pushed back to 2008. The Jaguar 96 standard aircraft is in frontline service at Coltishall. There are effectively two standards of the Jaguar 96, TIALD, and non-TIALD capable aircraft. The latter aircraft are not fitted with the necessary display required for TIALD imagery.
UPGRADE PATH
This, however, was not the end of the upgrade path as far as the Jaguar was concerned. DERA and Logistics Command took the opportunity to look beyond the 96 standard, to the 97 version. While the UOR was carried out under the auspices of a service deviation order, the Jaguar 96 and 97 will see a completely new military aircraft release - and the subsequent change of designation. While the UOR aircraft are referred to as GR1bs, the 96/97 aircraft will eventually be referred to as the Jaguar GR3, with the two-seat aircraft re-designated the T4.
Besides providing a baseline for the whole Jaguar fleet, UOR, and 96 standard aircraft, the 97 package includes the GEC-Marconi Alpha Helmet Mounted Sight (HMS) and liquid crystal displays. The LCDs are being introduced to counter sunlight washout on the aircraft's present displays, which is described as being a "definite problem". While such a transient affect may appear trivial, it can have a significant tactical impact. ATIALD attack, for instance, may be limited in terms of the directional approach, to take into account the position of the Sun relative to the cockpit.
The first Jaguar 97 standard aircraft, XZ 399, is expected to fly from Boscombe Down by the middle of this year. A two-seat Jaguar, XX833, is also being used by Boscombe Down in support of the 97 upgrade package, as well as for future planning.
Alongside XX833, DERA is using an avionics ground rig for the latest upgrade package, although this was not available for the Jaguar 96 programme. This is proving its efficacy, says DERA, in the sense that the developers can hold meetings with the operators from Coltishall, and then run, for example, various display options on the rig. The preferred option can then be selected for inclusion on the test aircraft. As DERA points out, this cuts down on the amount of flight testing.
Aircraft XX833, the aircraft on which DERA demonstrated the Jaguar 96 and 97 upgrade packages to Flight International, has been on a "long term loan" from the RAF. The aircraft was originally used, says DERA, to look at single-seat TIALD operations as a "standalone study". With the emergence of the UOR, and follow-on upgrade projects, it has become an extremely useful developmental tool.
Aircraft XX833 is continuing to be used as both a Jaguar 97 testbed and as a wider research vehicle for possible further upgrades. In addition to the HMS and LCDs, the core of the 97 upgrade, the aircraft is also being used to allow the operation of the Jaguar's improved navigation suite to be studied.
Sqn Ldr Trevor Roche, Flight Commander, Fast Jet Test Squadron, Combat Aircraft Department at the Defence Test and Evaluation Organisation at Boscombe Down, explains that one of the areas being examined is "how to tie the different navigation packages together".
Roche, test pilot for the Flight International demonstration sortie, says that, partly in the interest of expediting the programme relatively quickly, a "relatively simple" navigation integration has been adopted.
"The global positioning system, terrain reference navigation [TRN] and inertial navigation are integrated hierarchically, rather than filtered together," he says.
TERRAIN FOLLOWING
The British Aerospace Systems and Equipment Terprom provides the Jaguar with both ground proximity warning and obstacle avoidance. The ground proximity warning element is intended to support single-seat TIALD operation, particularly at low level, to avoid the pilot inadvertently losing too much altitude.
The TRN database provides the basis on which automatic obstacle warnings are given to the pilot, both via the improved head-up display and through the automatic voice-alerting device. The HUD also provides no turn left or right warnings should the aircraft be in the vicinity of a known obstacle, such as, for example, a large mast.
As Roche points out, a key aspect of the TRN in this application is the veracity of its database upon which the obstacle warning cues are based. The need to keep this as current as possible is obvious, as a TRN database which is out of date will to be to all intents and purposes more dangerous than not having any form of TRN. This application also flags up the need to keep as accurate and as detailed a database as possible of potential operational regions.
The improved HUD also includes most of the warnings that were previously displayed on a dedicated head-up warning panel in the Jaguar's original cockpit.
The element of the Jaguar 97 package which is liable to have the greatest impact on the frontline is the introduction of the HMS. The irony of the venerable Jaguar being the first RAF combat aircraft to be equipped with an HMS is not lost on those responsible for implementing the programme.
The Jaguar HMS is a relatively simple system using a magnetic head tracker. Magnetic trackers have predominantly been favoured by those countries which have deployed HMS systems, although electro-optical head tracking systems have also been developed. With a magnetic system, the HMS needs to be bore-sighted, or aligned, before each sortie. This is not the case with an electro-optic system.
The Alpha HMS will provide the pilot with the ability for both targeting and navigation applications. During the demonstration flight, Roche highlighted waypoint designation and waypoint cueing, as well as inter-cockpit cueing.
Slaving the TIALD pod to an HMS also provides clear operational advantages in the single-seat environment by reducing pilot workload. Rather than using the hand controller to acquire a target, the HMS can be used. The hand controller only becomes necessary in toggling between either the TIALD's television or thermal imaging modes or in actually firing the laser to designate the target for a laser-guided weapon.
While the monocular Jaguar HMS is rudimentary in terms of its functionality, for example in comparison to the helmet mounted display under development for the EF2000, it is extremely simple to use, as became readily apparent during the Flight International sortie.
The cueing reticle on the developmental HMS has four arrows, each on a 90¹ axis. During the trials, it has become apparent that additional arrows would provide a benefit in terms of guiding eye movement . With only four arrows, head movement is usually up and across, or down and along, rather than following a single arrow to the desired spot. Four more arrows are being introduced for the service HMS, spaced at 45¹ to provide better visual cues for pilot eye motion. Some HMS systems use as many as 16 cueing arrows to improve directional indicators.
Along with standardising the Jaguar fleet, there are also moves being put into motion to bring all of the the fleet's TIALD pods up to Series 400, rather than the Series 200.
INFRARED CUES
The HMSwould also prove a clear bonus in providing cueing for a high off-boresight (HOBS) imaging infrared guided missile. While the Jaguar carries the AIM-9L Sidewinder for self-protection, the Matra BAe Dynamics Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) has also been mooted as a potential addition to its arsenal.
The ASRAAM missile is not part of the Jaguar 97 package, although deliveries will start later this year for the RAF's British Aerospace Harrier GR7, and Panavia Tornado F3 aircraft. The ASRAAM was removed from the 97 standard wish list on cost grounds, as budgets were placed under increasing pressure.
Work, however, in using the Jaguar HMS with a HOBS air to air missile has continued, with form and fit, and captive carry trials of the ASRAAM on XX833.
The possibility of fielding the ASRAAM as the self-defence weapon on the Jaguar is greeted with enthusiasm by frontline operators. Having to contend with an ASRAAM launch envelope, rather than that of the enormously more limited envelope of the AIM-9L, significantly complicates any engagement plan.
A centreline TIALD configuration is normally favoured, although inboard wing pylons can be used
What the Jaguar project has also flagged up is that there is more than one way of skinning a cat when it comes to aircraft upgrades. The RAF and industry tradition, as evinced by the British Aerospace Tornado GR4 programme, has been to go for a single mid-life update. This approach has the clear disadvantage of being a readily identifiable big-ticket expenditure item, always liable for, at best, Treasury scrutiny, at worst, interference.
INTEGRATION TASK
It also poses those implementing the programme with a tough integration task, much of which is focused on software implementation. In the recent past it is the latter area which has caused serious delays and cost over-runs on several projects.
The approach taken on the Jaguar, at least at the outset, appears to have been driven by opportunity. The aircraft was declared mature, which basically provided a route through which Logistics Command could process discrete upgrade packages, without going through the traditional procurement approvals path. A Jaguar 97 Plus package is already being examined which would re-introduce certain elements which had been cut from the original proposal.
The Logistics Command approach takes on greater significance if, as suggested by some sources, the SDR recommends that aircraft types are declared "mature" as they enter RAF service, rather than years, or even decades, later.
Logistics Command and DERA were supported at the frontline by a philosophy of "get it into service" - an approach greatly facilitated by the incremental and iterative approach adopted by DERA and its industry associates.
What is also apparent within the Jaguar programme is the extent to which the eventual customer - the RAF - was involved throughout the project life cycle. Problematically, this usually run counter to the political prevailing philosophy of paring down RAF backline capabilities through contractorisation. Proponents of the Jaguar approach argue that its success highlights the value of "contracting and developing as much as possible in-house".
Notably absent from the UOR, and the Jaguar 96, was BAe. It has, however, involved itself in the Jaguar 97, following political manoeuvring.
If the Jaguar approach helps to provide a template for smart procurement, then BAe cannot afford to stay on the sidelines.
Changes made from UORto jaguar '96New global positioning system
New 1553 B databus
Modified stick top
New hand controller
Re-positioned cockpit switches
Three-axis "g" transducer for electronic presentation in the HUD (in Jaguar 97)
Removal of head up "g" meter and warning panel
Missile uncage facility
Ground proximity warning system
Automatic voice alerting device
Hardened video with sonar location beacon
Second Havequick radio
Removal of standby V/UHF
Removal of HF
Re-design Sky Guardian lnstallation
Internal and external NVG fit
Identification friend orfoe link to global positioning system
New laser guided bomb algorithms
New instrumentation rack and recorder
A centreline TIALDconfiguration is normally favoured, although inboard wing pylons can be used
If the cap fits - ASRAAMcaptive carry trials have been carried out
Source: Flight International