The Indian Air Force (IAF) has revealed the code word for IAF's secret Balakot airstrike mission that was conducted on February 26, 2019, after the Pulwama terror attack. The name of the mission was ‘SPICE'.
The Balakot airstrike was conducted using IAF Mirage 2000 aircraft which were carrying Spice bombs, therefore, IAF had kept ‘operation spice' as its mission name that targeted JeM terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot region.
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.
India had used another version of Spice bombs — ‘Spice-2000' when IAF targeted Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps in Balakot Pakistan after Pulwama terror attack. The bombs were carried by IAF's Mirage-2000 fighter jets in Indian airstrike.
During the strikes, the penetrator version of Spice-2000 bombs was used by the IAF in the Balakot airstrikes which made holes in the concrete rooftops of the buildings in the Jaish camp but did not destroy the buildings. The bombs, however, exploded inside the building killing those who were present inside the building.
The IAF had conducted the Balakot airstrikes on February 26 in response to the terrorist attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama which resulted in the martyrdom of 40 CRPF personnel.
