This article was written by Air Marshal V.K. Bhatia PVSM AVSM VrC & Bar (Retd) in Sep 2020, about first ever successful Sea Eagle Anti Ship Missile firing from maritime Jaguar aircraft (in May 2000).
It is about the sortie we flew together in jaguar trainer aircraft chasing the sea eagle anti ship missile cruising at sea skimming heights. A sortie we both would never forget in our lives.
IAF Jaguar’s Momentous Live Firing of Sea Eagle Missile
This is the story of an Indian Air Force (IAF) Jaguar-launched Sea Eagle Missile that averted a near disaster before finding its intended target and sinking it into oblivion deep in the Arabian Sea.
One of the biggest operators of the ‘Deep Penetration Strike Aircraft (DPSA), IAF had acquired the Anglo-French Sepecat Jaguar from the UK with inductions commencing July 1979 with a squadron worth of Jaguars initially borrowed from the Royal Air Force (RAF) that were replaced/augmented with 40 factory-produced at Warton from March 1981 onwards. Jaguars, also known as ‘Shamsher’ (Sword of Justice) in the IAF, were then produced in large numbers by HAL with IAF raising as many as six squadrons of these aircraft with low-level strike deep inside enemy territory as their primary role. No.6 ‘Dragons’ squadron Jaguars (IM version) inducted in 1987 were specially equipped with French AGAVE radar and Sea Eagle anti-shipping missiles to give them a potent maritime strike capability.
The ‘Dragons’ were based at Lohegaon, Pune for ease of discharging its primary maritime strike role responsibilities in the Arabian Sea. Pune is one of the Air Force Stations under SWAC (South-West Air Command) with its HQ at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, which in turn, is affiliated to Mumbai-based WNC (Western Naval Command) of the Indian Navy.
In May 2000, when this author was at the helm of affairs in SWAC it was decided in conjunction with WNC to carry out a Sea Eagle missile attack against a real ship to test its efficacy within the firing envelop of 110 km+ standoff range. This was the very first attempt at live firing since the induction of the missile in the IAF more than a decade ago. The exercise was planned to the minutest details which entailed positioning of the target about 250 km from Mumbai, deep in the Arabian Sea and sanitising the entire route from missile launch to the target of any shipping, declaring it as the Danger Zone. 11th May was fixed as the date of firing.
It was decided to carry out the exercise in a two-ship formation with a single-seat IM Jaguar to carry and launch the missile and a twin-seat IB version as the chase aircraft. I had positioned myself at the base the previous day to fly in the chase aircraft with the then Squadron Commander, Wg Cdr Khosla while the fighter was to be flown by the Flt Cdr….
May 11 dawned with clear skies, a perfect day for the conduct of the live exercise. The sortie right up to the point of weapon release was flawless, but then, as it often happens, Murphy stepped in. The underslung Sea Eagle refused to leave the launcher even after repeated attempts to fire the weapon. Mission was declared DNCO (Duty Not Carried Out) and the formation returned to base. The Dragons were however determined to find out as to what had gone wrong. In the meantime, WNC was requested to continue its sea cordon of the danger zone for one more day for a possible second attempt the next day.
After a careful analysis of the missile firing circuitry, Murphy turned out to be an electric switch in the undercarriage bay which was selected On prior to the sortie. But after pouring over deeply into the circuit diagram again and again, it was discovered that it – rather strangely – should have been left in Neutral position to complete the missile firing circuit.
It was nothing short of ‘Eureka’ and repeated mock launches confirmed the finding.
Mercifully, next day Murphy decided to leave us alone (or did it!?), when we witnessed a copybook 100 km stand-off launch from the fighter that we were chasing. Incidentally, even though Sea Eagle weighs a respectable 580 kg, at just 4.14 m length, it is still a very small object to track especially when its paraffin-filled TR1 60 turbojet kicks in and the missile quickly accelerates to its M 0.85 cruising speed while, at the same time, dipping down to sea-skimming levels. Little wonder, we lost sight of the brute initially, but after clocking M 0.9+, we picked it up after an agonising 15 seconds or more, just above the waves, clocking 1,000+ kmph. Flying from the front seat, I kept my eyes glued to the little monster in order not to lose sight of it again till we saw Murphy back in action in the form of a large fishing trawler filling our vision, and to our horror, directly in the flight path of the missile. The ship had obviously slipped through the naval cordon and landed up in the danger zone.
Sea Eagle missile after AGAVE aided launch relies on inertial navigation in the initial stages of its flight while flying close to sea level. However, at 30 km from the intended target, it does a ‘pop-up’ manoeuvre to gain height, opening up its radar-homing seeker head to look for and lock on to the target for the final run in, again at about 3m above the sea level to the point of impact.
The missile had covered around 60 km after its launch, heading straight for the intruding trawler at a fast rate. However, just when we thought everything was lost and braced ourselves for the worst, the missile mercifully went into pop-up mode, missing the trawler by whiskers. We also jumped over the ship to match the missile heaving a sigh of relief for the miraculous escape.
At around 20 km from the target Sea Eagle dipped again. We could see that it was heading for the derelict ship that had been positioned by the Navy as the live target with no more unwanted objects in its way. It was a clean run now and approximately a minute later, the missile impacted the target almost amidships, just above the waterline, making a clean hole through the hull with its 230 kg warhead exploding deep inside. It was a sight to behold. The target ship covered fully in a massive plume of orange flames and smoke neatly broke into two halves with all the kinetic energy and the high-explosive charge and sank out of trace within two minutes, even before we could finish one orbit to see the results for ourselves.
The return trip was uneventful.
And while the congratulatory messages came pouring in from WNC and Naval HQ, we knew it was sheer luck that saved the ‘Day.
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*Notably, this was also the last live firing of the Sea Eagle missile from IAF’s maritime Jaguars. The Dragons proudly sport a new and much improved Israeli Elta 2052 radar combined with the more potent Harpoon anti-shipping missiles.
** The writer was AOC-in-C, SWAC from November 1999 to August 2001.
*** Wg Cdr Anil Khosla later rose to the rank of Air Marshal and retired in 2019 as the Vice Chief of Air Staff.
Coming up –
other side of the story: The event from the eyes of the then CO.
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Good that the missile has been phased out from Navy, but the reasons r different why i m saying “good”!!
The missile was a very advanced smart weapon of its time. After its life expiry the refurbishing didn’t yield appropriate results.
The missile not engaging the fishing trawler was fortuitous and then the destruction of the placed derelict ship was mission accomplished. But having said that, the non engagement of the trawler, was that investigated?
Good observation. But, as the profile states, it goes on Inertial Navigation guidance for major part of the initial trajectory, that is to say, is kinda blind till it opens up its own radar and navigates towards the fed in coordinates . Therefore, it really wouldn’t see anything on the way and will get disrupted only by a physical obstruction, like if that trawler had come in the way before its designated point of pull up. In this case, it did not happen so, hence no hit on the trawler. Hope that explains it. Regards
It was a very smart weapon of its time. Thanks for the value addition.
That was part of its profile where in 27 km short of target the missiles pops up opens its radar picks up the targets and ducks down again. It coincided with the position of the trawler. Otherwise it would would have hit the trawler.
Scary
That’s why the foreign munitions need to be tested earliest in live firing to give crew the confidence.
Great read.
Used to happen on BMP 1 too.
But in that case it used to ignite and not leave guide rail.
It was a proven weapon. It was not live fired during integration trials.
Thrilling and captivating story.
Will never forget the sortie ever.
Very Interesting
It was a thrilling experience
The saga of the Dragons. Unforgettable…
Dragons spewing fire
Finally, it was fired, and performed in copybook mode. Thrillng account of the event. Dear Murphy always gets in, somehow.
It was a state of the art missile, when inducted; gave us lots of confidence to do our bit in the anti-shipping role.
It was a copybook launch indeed.