India Wants Air-to-Air Missiles for Its Jaguars

Published: 26 Jun 2009 10:06
NEW DELHI - India is on a global hunt for air-to-air close-combat missiles along with helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) for the Air Force's British-made Jaguar ground-attack aircraft. Bids for the procurement, valued at more than $100 million, have been sent to MBDA of France, Rafael of Israel, Diehl Defense of Germany, Raytheon of the U.S. and Rosoboronexport of Russia.
The Air Force also is improving its Jaguars through the incorporation of stealth technology, an engine with higher thrust and advanced avionics. The Air Force wants to raise the combat capability of its Jaguar aircraft to be comparable with the Russian-made Su-30MKI multi-role aircraft in its fleet.
Precision-guided bombs and anti-ship missiles will be acquired later, an Air Force official said.
As part of the upgrade, Thales is supplying autopilot systems for the Jaguar, and Rafael is supplying laser designator pods.
The Jaguars also will be equipped with Magic-2 and R-77 missiles. Communications and radio navigation systems are being built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), and the mission computer is being provided by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
HAL and DRDO also have teamed up to develop software for the upgrades. Elta Electronics Industries of Israel is supplying other radar equipment, including electronic countermeasures.
In the current bid, the Indian Air Force has a requirement for 384 fire-and-forget missiles, 130 HMDs and 226 launchers.
The Air Force requires that the missiles be able to scan the target area for hostile aircraft and then lock on after launch. The missile also should be capable of firing backwards, employ thrust vector technology and have an infrared imaging system.
The missile must have a range of more than 10 kilometers and a top speed of Mach 4.