IAF to buy over 100 SPICE bombs, signs Rs 300 cr deal with Israel

New Delhi, June 06: Buoyed by its success in the Balakot air strikes against a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist camp in Pakistan, Indian Air Force has signed a deal worth around Rs 300 crore for buying more than 100 SPICE bombs from Israel.

SPICE bombs were used by the Air Force to attack the madrasa of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot, Pakistan, on February 26.

As per the contract, the advanced SPICE bombs would be delivered to the Air Force in the next three months as the deal is under emergency powers.

A SPICE bomb has a standoff range of 60 kilometres and approaches the target as its unique scene-matching algorithm compares the electro-optical image received in real-time via the weapon seeker with mission reference data stored in the weapon computer memory and adjusts the flight path accordingly.

SPICE 2000 consists of an add-on kit for warheads such as the MK-84, BLU-109, APW and RAP-2000.

Currently, the IAF's Mirage-2000 are equipped with the SPICE-2000 bombs and these aircraft were used in the pre-dawn strike on the biggest terror camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror outfit in Pakistan recently.

A fleet of Mirage 2000 deep-penetration fighter jets was chosen for the non-military, preemptive strike on 26 February on the camp of the JeM in Pakistan due to the combat aircraft's capabilities of hitting long-range targets with "pin-point" accuracy and dropping a range of bombs and missiles including laser-guided ones.

The IAF had conducted the Balakot airstrikes on February 27 in response to the terrorist attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama which resulted in the martyrdom of 40 CRPF personnel.