The Jaguar M; When the Big Cat Went to Sea 

The Jag always was a beautiful aircraft, so sleek and purposeful looking. If one was to imagine a private sports jet, look no further. 🙂

That's the first footage I've seen of the M - a beautiful aircraft whether land or sea variant.

The Mitsubishi F-1 (derived from the T-2 trainer) is very similar in appearance to the SEPECAT Jaguar. The Japanese considered buying a license to build the Jaguar in country but developed their own plane. It retired around the same time as the Jaguar. The planes were worn out! The direct replacement for the F-1 was the Mitsubishi F-2, nicknamed "Viper Zero." It's basically an enlarged Block 50 F-16 derivative.

It's so funny that Dassault was also pushing for the adoption of the single-engine Super Etandard because of the engine issue....

I have a real soft spot for the Jaguar. My love of planes comes from spending many an afternoon watching the Jaguars takeoff and land at RAF Colitishall. I do miss that base.

Never heard of the navalized Jaguar before. Thanks, Ed.

I live in Rochefort! Thank you for making this video! I'll be sure to share it with the naval air museum staff!

Never heard of navalised Jaguar for the French Navy. I though they always had Super Etendards. The regular Jags saw a lot of action during Desert Storm.

3:44 this footage of the Jaguar off-roading is sick

One of my favourite cold war aircraft. I heard it wasnt always the easiest to fly but served the RAF for a long time which must say something.

Thanks for your efforts your videos are always interesting. I would have thought that adapting the Jaguar for Aircraft carrier use was a no brainer it already has huge undercarriage and designed for short field operations.

Great to see some footage of HKM Karel Doorman. She was on station when my father was a NL Marine during the Dutch New Guinea war against Indonesia. Later on she was sold to Argentina. As you pointed out , she was formerly a British vessel. Funny how these things turn out..

The image of the French cat and its one-word response were perfect.

I'm a simple man, I see a video opening with footage of HMCS Bonaventure, I press like!

"Tales of French Military procurement" could be a channel all of it's own

8:28 - Great point. Thank you for this, Ed. ☮

Great looking aircraft. Watching the video I did think that the Royal Navy could have used it. But as they had the Buccaneer the Jaguar would not really have a role.

Great video, with some great footage! Thanks!

Thank you, Ed, great job.

Quality aviation video. Good subject and commentary, Thank you.

Once more a brilliant video, Ed! I've watched every one of your videos and you never disappoint... As ever, a great choice of subject matter with well researched content, and all presented with aplomb!

Thanks Ed. One of my favourite moments is witnessing two Jaguars coming in to Exeter air day early in the morning and beating up rhe airfield for 5minutes ......sensential ! (about 1982 ish ) ironically the very last airshow !

It wasn't the Super Etendard which was so potent, it was the Exocet it carried.

It was gorgeous 1:72 model kit of Jaguar, produced by FROG and later by NOVO in Soviet Union. She was one of most beautiful aircraft for me, avail to build at that time (1980s).😍

the jaguar in general is a classic forgotten aircraft though an intresting one. remember the ones being based in brüggen. quite impressive in the air though looking somehow clumsy on the ground. i think it deserves that attention, so great video again!

Thank you. i enjoyed that bit of military aviation history.

The Jaguar was unique, one of a very few that had hardpoints on top of the wings.

Another great "What If?" video. Thank you.

Love the 2CVs sneaking in to the video....

I like the RAF pilots comment that you needed to use afterburner on the Jaguar to get it out of the hangar!

Interesting stuff. Thanks

Excellent! Fascinating. TFP.

Thank you. All new to me.

When Britain and France get together and stop treating each other as rivals they do some great things like the Channel Tunnel, Concord and the Jaguar.

I love the Jaguar my first metal airplane was the Jag. It was a Corgi or Dinky toy. Now I always wanted a 1/48th scale plastic model of it. I have no luck finding one

Solid content

A slightly larger wing with better air brakes and also a hot-run option for remaining engine would have resolved the issues nicely

The twin-safety issue is a bit of a moot point. The Jaguar was never a hot-rod & had a comparatively low TWR, especially when taking-off with a heavy combat load. Moreover, it's wing-loading (despite possessing double-slotted flaps & full-span slats) was high for a naval aircraft intended to operate from small-carriers. Both factors meant it would have needed both engines to be operating correctly for it fly safely in such a scenario. Because both engines would have been needed there was double the chance of engine failure causing the loss of the aircraft compared to a single-engine type - I.E. it had two points of failure instead of just one. Even when lightly loaded, such as during approach & landing, the Jaguar would have been a handful as it was particularly prone to handling problems flying on one engine at low-speed, which is a somewhat less than desirable trait for an aircraft operating off a small aircraft-carrier.

Wouldn't be the first, or the last, time a aircraft manufacturer decides to sabotage a design that originated from a another company now would it..

good point re single engine vs twin engine, never liked the etendard with the weird turkey neck thing under the nose. I have read though that the Jag was pretty underpowered, and the only reason it could take off at all was because the earth was round ;-)

not as uncommon as you might think for companies not wanting to sell a product under certain circumstances. Low volume with added costs for specialization? Extra regulatory requirements the company isn't prepared to deal with? Not having the expertise to develop their product for an application? trying to focus efforts on a more profitable market opportunity? etc.

Hi Ed, I was recently at a military museum in Bucharest. They had a obscure I.A.R aircraft that looked like a La5. It had a weird blue paint scheme. They also built their own weird version of the jaguar that was part of the Romanian airport. You can see some of the pictures if you go look at the pictures on google.

Ahh! Politics and weapons development…usually the doom of the outstanding. Beautiful looking aircraft!

Jaguar must be one of the sleekest aircraft design out there.

It's comical that the UK had land based catapults for testing carrier aircraft, and now due to cutbacks we don't even have catapults on the carriers anymore :P

It would be nice to get another aircraft like the Jaguar.

Well done on awesome vid👍very interesting history n not well known part of history👍any nation going for Skyhawk not bad jet for its size but lack decent radar compare to land base jets. But after Skyhawk was F18A too big of jet for Majestic aircraft carriers but would have interesting to Jaguar M offer to RAN if French did go with Jaguar M.

A bit like the Buccaneer: a complete dog below 300 knots, but once you're up to speed and so long as you maintain energy, an absolute delight to throw around over 300 knots

France never pulled out of NATO, only out of NATO command. And they developed a work around after De Gauelle died. French forces were de facto under NATO command in forward deployment like Germany. It was revealed to the French public in the late 80s.

My 2 first ever models, a jaguar and a Mirage F1

They remind me of a trainer for the F104. Sleek with wings that look too small

Indian Air Force still flies Jaguar. IAF absolutely loves it. Recently Hindustan Aeronautics came up with Jaguar Max upgrade package that includes a large area display and Israeli AESA radar to name a few. However Jaguar's service days with IAF are numbered.

Kind of a shame that RN didn’t take it up, imagine Jag used as a carrier training aircraft and maybe later with Blue Fox, then Blue Vixen radar operated on three medium carriers instead of CVA01 or the Invincible class. (imagine an updated, stretched Hermes).

By the time the RAF retired the Jag it was an incredibly capable aircraft, just old.

It might sound ironic to settle for a single engine design at first but if you judge that you cannot land at sea on a single engine, it's still preferable to only have a single engine since 2 engines doubles the risk of failure (a risk which which infamously materialized with the Yak-38).

I always like to wonder if the Jaguar M had been adopted, and if the UK had retained a conventional aircraft carrier capability (by building the cancelled CVA-01), could the Jaguar M have been taken on by the Fleet Air Arm as well? The land-based Jaguar gave excellent service with the RAF.

dunno, it was pretty rough on the yanks, too. i wouldn't have wanted to be on the deck of the forrestal in '67. a terrible accident and some very brave fire crews aboard that ship. 😔

Fascinating. I learnt something new today.

Wow I never knew this maritime history of the Jag

A variant of the Mirage F1 would have been interesting.

Hmm, interesting how a jet with those small wings could safely land on a pretty short deck. Not to mention how it would land with a payload. The Jaguar was a very good low altitude attack aircraft for it's time (at least before the Tornado) but that was because it's smaller wings made it faster on the deck. I mean it is not a deltawing but still a lot of wingload. If they would have made a version with a wider wing and a lower max speed, that would have probably made it better suited for carrier ops, not to mention more agile...

A great video. These French flying machines are absolutely magnifique and beautiful. The Jaguar seems like a lighter version of the Aardvark. Did it have a comparable terrain following radar suite?

First thing I thought was "Hey, it's only got one engine!"

The indian Airforce still uses jaguars for maritime strike role. They are called the Jaguar IM

Frankly I could see the British buying this to serve alongside the Hawker-Siddeley HS.1197 Buccaneer as RN carrier strike aircraft

Interesting counterfactual scenario: in 1982, an Argentine Jaguar-M squadron, based at Port Stanley, has multiple roles: launching Exocets, bombing/strafing smaller vessels, intercepting Harriers, and ground attack/CAS after British landings. Could have made a big difference - given that in the real world, Super Etendards and Skyhawks based on the mainland made the war, in the words of one UK general "a close run thing".

Never see much on the Jag was it mostly used as close air surport? Did it ever get any dog fights?

I wonder if a navalized version of the Mirage F1 would have made sense and was considered.

The wings were quite small for carrier aircraft.

May have been cheaper than re-engining the MD Phantom for the British…

Another factor not mentioned was that, since France had a strong nationalistic push to go "only French" for their military, the Jaguar was seen in disfavor as it was a cooperative effort with the British. The Super Etendard was pitched as a "completely French" aircraft, built solely in France, by the French and for the French. In fact, almost 40% of the Super Etendard was of foreign manufacture, with all the parts being shipped in and assembled by Dassault. This was hardly any less than the Jaguar M, which had much better performance in terms of speed, range, maneuverability, and payload capacity.

The Jaguar was a vastly more capable jet than the Super Etendard, with higher top speed, longer range, and nearly double the the payload. Even accounting for slight performance losses due to added weight from the carrier adaptations, the Jaguar M seems like it would've been a huge upgrade for the French Navy.

It’s a real shame, as the Jaguar was a real beauty. I especially liked the look of the radar equipped Indian variants. It’s sad the way the defence industry fought amongst themselves so much in that 50s-70s period of amalgamation. Some great aircraft manufacturers were lost, despite having strong products.

has there been any post war jets that remained on or under budget over their lifetime?

My favourite fighter jets in the 80s

at the time Marine Nationale could have opted for the naval carrier borne A-6F Intruder (Block II) maritime multi role ground attack fighter . . . although it didn't have any internal cannon, but a provision was there to arm the A-6F with an internal cannon should it be necessary . . .

The unique position of the company making the plane not wanting it to be sold, ladies and gentlemen I give you, the French!

Ed, sounds like you’ve got a little goose green caught in your throat there, mate.

As far as I am aware, the Super Etendard was transonic when fully loaded and all types of Jaguar were supersonic.. so they chose a less capable aircraft

I was hoping that the yellow citroën would be blown across the airfield by the jet blast top gear style

Would have been interesting how a Jaguar M would have fared at Top Gun. I mean already the Land based jag performed brilliantly at Red Flag.

A great potential.....apart from the fact it was embarrassingly underpowered when tooled up....

i dread to think what that wouldve been like with an engine out! better than the f35 but not much lol

There is a joke in the Indian airforce that jaguar only takes off because of Earth's curvature, still they love it tho. Bizarre that the French wanted a carrier plane out of it.

The Super Etendard is a fine aircraft. However I do believe that the Sepecat Jaguar would have had more potential. However it was an orphan and Dassault was never going to nurture it the way it deserved.

In a typical ' *sign of the times* ' ........... For a couple of decades now, nothing flies in or out of Bedford Airfield which is a giant car park for new, mostly imported, cars waiting despatch to dealerships.

Let's combine the Jaguar M with the Indian DARIN III Upgrade.

I always thought the Mirage F1 could have been developed into a carrier a/c

my fav crab cab after the Harrier ever made

I have hope that Tamiya will create a one in 1/48th scale

Did a bunch of Med cruises in the late 60s to mid 70s, crossdecked wirh the Ark Royal and saw Buccaneers, Jaguars, Rolls Royce Spey F4s, a quite different bird other than the airframe from US versions, oh and Bears, Badgers, Soviet frigates and hairy Soviet butts!!!! PS the buccaneers and jaguars were'nt shipboard they were land based and would over fly the carrier and put on airshows for us

It would have served Dassault right if the French Navy had cancelled the Jaguar... and bought the Corsair!

It doesn't make sense though, with Dassault owning Bréguet the company's in a win-win situation, they're selling whatever the French navy is buying? There's more to the story than that je pense..

"To be Franc" I see what you did there 😂

With the later 811 uprated Adour, the M could have been a great carrier aircraft.

The first few images are from Hr Ms Karel Doorman (former HMS Venerable) Dutch Marines.

Would a navalised Mirage F-1M not have been better than the Jaguar M? More power, better handling and could have replaced both the F-5 and the Entendard over time.

Talking of sea going variants of RAF planes. I heard there was talk of a sea tornado. Still prefer the jaguar tho.

At 5:26 a 2CV, so French. M.

Probably a stupid question but the Jaguar has only been out of sevice for a decade or so??, What happens to all those Jags?, i could think of a country that'd love some fast ground strike aircraft that can take off from rough ground.