ISLAMABAD – The Indian Air Force is equipping its Su-30MKI combat aircraftwith the Israeli Spice 2000 bombs which were used by the force to carry outair strikes inside Pakistan.
Talking about the quick deployment of forces by the Air Force on thewestern frontier of Pakistan, top Indian Air Force sources told ANI thatthe force has been successful in doing so due to the exercise GaganShaktiheld last year where the service practiced to carry out high tempooperations on both the possible fronts.
Now the Air Force is putting them on the Su-30s as well to further enhancetheir firepower,” government sources told ANI.
India had acquired more than 200 of these bombs from Israel a few yearsback and the Su-30MKI has already carried out trials of launching theSpice-2000 on ground targets, they said.
“After a few more trials, the Su-30 fleet would be equipped with thesebombs which rely on coordinates and satellite pictures of the target tohome in and destroy the intended targets,” the sources said.
Read Top Stories
Once the integration is successful, it would be a big force multiplier forthe Air force as the only planes which can launch these bombs right now arethe Mirage 2000s.
The IAF has only around three squadrons of these planes whereas the servicehas already inducted more than 250 of these aircraft and has plans ofgetting around 20 more by the end of next year.
The Air Force used the Spice-2000 bombs extensively during the air strikeson Pakistan on February.
