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Indian Air Force wants upgraded Spice-2000 bombs

The advanced version is capable of destroying buildings.

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is looking to buy upgraded version of the Spice-2000 bombs, which were used to target Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camp at the Balakot in Pakistan. The advanced version of the Spice-2000 bombs is capable of completely destroying buildings and bunkers.

The current Spice-2000 bomb which was used by the IAF in Balakot first penetrates the building and then bursts, killing “soft skins” through its impact. However, these in most cases do not destroy the buildings.

The new upgrade the IAF wants is bunker buster or the building destroyer that can decimate targeted buildings.

The IAF could acquire the new bombs through the emergency powers granted to the three services for buying any equipment of their choice worth up to Rs 300 crore for emergency situations.

Under the powers, the Army has already made up its mind to buy Spike anti-tank guided missiles deployment against any possible armoured threat posed by the enemy troops.

The Spice-2000 bombs have been acquired from Israel which is one of the main weapon and ammunition supplier of the Air Force. Israel has used Spice-2000 to hit terrorists in urban theatres.

The precision-guided glide bomb Spice (Smart, Precise Impact, Cost-Effective) were used during the Balakot strike because of the precision with which it hits the targets avoiding collateral damages. The advantage of Spice bomb is that while it uses GPS co-ordinates to hit targets, it can operate even if enemy has deployed GPS jammers. If GPS jammers are used then, it uses unique scene-matching algorithms navigation guidance to hit targets which match the images which were fed into it.

The users can also determine the angle from which it will enter the building and its only after entering the building it blasts killing all soft skin targets (humans).
India had retaliated to the Pulwama bombing of February 14 by launching a pre-dawn airstrike through Mirage 2000 jets hitting the biggest training camp of JeM at Balakot in Pakistan. This was the first time since the 1971 war that IAF fighters crossed the LoC, something they did not do even during the Kargil conflict of 1999.

Sources had then said that Spice-2000 bombs could not have been fired by Mirage fighters if the systems in the bomb where not sure of hitting the targets.

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