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This Jaguar E two-seat fighter-bomber, surely a prototype or among the quite first production machines has not a single external marking for identification and I cannot find if it was destined as permanent machine for the Istres Flight Test Center to work on further improvement and systems to introduce during the life of the type in units or just to complete tests before introduction of the type in French Armée de l'Air. I remember that, at the time of this visit, it was possible to hear two types of speeches. One was not very favourable to the aircraft and probably due to the fact that at the origin the Franco-British SEPECAT Jaguar was a design from Bréguet and so Dassault people, the famous French aircraft designer having then taken-over the oldest existing aircraft manufacturer in France, considered that the baby was not their and so was not a design of excellence. For the Armée de l'Air, all people involved were satisfied to introduce a machine done for attack, a necessary complement to the very high performances versatile Mirages and replacement to ageing old fighters F-100 Super Sabres and SMB.2 Super Mystères used as tactical machines by the French FATAC ( Tactical Air Force ). The 7th Fighter Wing fitted with old Mystère IV As at St-Dizier Air Base had to receive Jaguars to become a tactical nuclear unit alongside Mirage III Es of the 4th Fighter Wing based at Luxeuil, strategic nuclear being assumed by the three Wings of Mirage IV As and their exclusively devoted C-135Fs tankers.
