I don't know a thing about the Jaguar. I'm pretty sure the first time I saw one was during the first Gulf War and that was about it. But, when I saw the Jaguar color profile in the September 2013 Model Airplane International I thought "that is a pretty sharp plane - especially the two seater!"
I found the Italeri kit on sale and ordered new decals. I couldn't find the same as those I liked in the magazine, but these are close enough.
A bit about the Nigerian Jags:
"HOW NIGERIA LOST THE USE OF HER JAGUAR JETS, WITHOUT MOST OF THEM HAVING LOGGED UP 150 HOURS !
Posted on August 22, 2012
Narrated by Air Aficionados XNur44 and Gbash10 (Beegeagle’s Bloggers)
The Jaguar jet has had the shortest service life in the Nigerian Air Force, thanks in no small part to the nature of the purchase contract and the international politics of arms transfer at that time.
An initial batch of 12 (twelve) single seat variants were supplied and later 6 (six) twin-seat versions which were used for pilot training in the United States were inducted into the NAF.
The Nigerian Air Force was denied the option of purchasing advanced weapons to enhance the deep strike capabilities of the Jaguar jets except for iron bombs of limited effectiveness. A request for in-flight refueling tankers was also turned down because they could be used to invade neighboring countries.
It was stipulated that the jets were to be used only for defensive purposes or they ran the risk of a withdrawal of technical support and spare parts and NAF could not resell/transfer the jets to a third party (another country) without approval of British Aerospace (now BAe Systems), UK Ministry of Defense and the House of Commons.
Subsequently, the technical support agreement expired and was not renewed and more importantly, the assembly line for the Jaguar jet was shut down. The only maintenance facility that can undertake rebuild/repair work is located in India.
Sometime in 2007 when these jets were put on display by the NAF for prospective buyers to inspect, it emerged that a Jaguar B TRAINER variant (NAF 703) had flown for only 150 hours 54 minutes since it was manufactured in December 1984. It had its 100 hours inspection on the 10th day of February, 1986. It suggests that the crated fleet of Jaguar jets is almost brand-new still.
So it is imperative that future airplane purchases should also be backed up by first class in-country maintenance facilities and support structures. When NAF offered the Jaguar for sale, BAe officials came for inspection/evaluation and among others conditions; they said that BAe will consider purchasing the planes at the purchase price or lower value than what Nigeria spent on the acquisition of the said jets.
As modern military technology is brought to bear on today’s battlefield, the theory,tactics and strategy of air combat maneuvering have impacted significantly on the composition and force structure of Air Forces around the world.
From the lessons learned through recent air wars from the Israeli-Syrian air war, Falklands War, Bosnia to Gulf War I & II, modern Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM) techniques indicate that Beyond Visual Range (BVR) engagement is the way to go.
Also deep strike operations became so expensive in terms of airplane and crew losses (especially during Gulf War I where Tornado jet accounted for a large number of air to ground losses) that the strategy of package strikes (Vietnam era tactics) was revalidated and today remains one of the current modes of offensive/defensive counter air operations."
The kit and markings:
IMG_0002 by Donald Miller, on Flickr
IMG_0009 by Donald Miller, on Flickr
IMG_0010 by Donald Miller, on Flickr
IMG_0011 by Donald Miller, on Flickr
IMG_0012 by Donald Miller, on Flickr
IMG_0013 by Donald Miller, on FlickrThese are the markings that got me to buy the kit - The Royal Air Force of Oman.
IMG_0003 by Donald Miller, on FlickrThese are the markings I found - The Nigerian Air Force.
IMG_0007 by Donald Miller, on FlickrFrom this set (so I can make more of them!):
IMG_0006 by Donald Miller, on Flickr
