Another Weapon for the Su-30MKI; India’s Foremost Fighters to be Equipped with Israeli SPICE-2000 GPS Guided Bombs

Following reports that the Indian Air Force struck targets in Pakistani territory - allegedly belonging to a number of Islamist factions responsible for attacks on Indian forces in Kashmir - details have emerged that the service is planning to upgrade its strike capabilities by equipping its Su-30MKI air superiority fighters with Israeli made Rafael SPICE-2000 GPS guided bombs. These same bombs were reportedly dropped by the country’s Mirage 2000 light single engine French multirole jets - which are currently the only aircraft in Indian service to deploy these munitions. The bombs are also compatible with F-15 and F-16 fighters of the Israeli Air Force.

The Indian Armed Forces are currently the most powerful in the world which lack dedicated medium or heavy bombers. If equipped with a high payload of these guided munitions however, the Su-30MKI will be able to drop over twice the tonnage of the Mirage 2000 - and penetrate enemy airspace at considerably higher speeds and altitudes comparable to those of an advanced bomber. While the Su-30MKI was primarily acquired for its advanced air to air combat capability, deploying advanced Russian munitions such as the R-27ER/ET, R-77 and K-100 ‘AWACS killer.’ The fighter has also been equipped for ship hunting and strike roles with two separate variants of the Brahmos cruise missile - a Mach 3 platform which is one of the most capable in the world. The SPICE-2000 will allow the aircraft to pursue a bombing role as well as a strike role, making use of infra red homing with GPS allowing them to strike with a high degree of precision even from extreme altitudes. The bombs carry formidable 900kg warheads, allowing them to deliver considerably more tonnage of TNT than a missile - though sacrificing standoff capability to do so.

India has modified the Su-30MKI to deploy a number of non-Russian subsystems and munitions, including the Israeli Litening targeting pod, the indigenous DRDO Tarang MK.II radar warning receiver and Astra long range air to air missile and the British ASRAAM short range air to air missile. Addition of an additional Israeli system in the form of a new munition is hardly revolutionary in this regard, and represents a further step by the Indian Air Force to diversify the fighter’s capabilities.