Bulldogs for sale

BAe tried to buy the Jaguars from Nigeria in the early 1990s when they were still in reasonable condition. The aircraft on the tender have been for sale for a while -Nigeria I guess comes within the list of places deemed as ‘dangerous’!

“The final export success for the Jaguar was to Nigeria, which placed an order for eighteen aircraft (plus 18 options) in June 1983. Deliveries of the thirteen single-seaters and five two-seaters began in early 1984 to the sole Nigerian Jaguar operating base at Makurdi. Despite a military coup in Nigeria in December 1983, Jaguar deliveries continued and were completed in 1985.

The Nigerian Jaguars had the LRMTS nose, overwing rails for Sidewinders, and Adour Mk811-58 engines.

Four aircraft (three single-seaters and one two-seater) are known to have been written off:

NAF714 on July 14th 1985 in west Nigeria;
NAF702 on April 26th 1985 at Ikereku;
NAF7… on March 29th 1989 at Makurdi;
NAF7… in April 1989.

The last flight of a NAF Jaguar occurred in early 1990. Despite the small number of hours clocked up by these aircraft, they were left to rot at Makurdi. Attempts by BAe to recover the aircraft and refurbish them came to nothing”

http://www.targetlock.org.uk/jaguar/service_nigeria.html and http://www.targetlock.org.uk/jaguar/production_nigeria.html

If I recall correctly, there was serious interest from Oman in BAe refurbishing and acquiring these “nearly new” Nigerian Jags, which was defeated by a combination of Nigerian beaurocracy and corruption. Apparently, as alluded to above, it was due to the issue of who owned these airframes, and who had the authority to sell them on…

..it’s also worth nothing that the documentation attached to the twin-tub Jag states a total airframe time of 150 hours. Which probably confirms that this airframe has not seen any daylight under its wheels for some 20 years!