For the first time at Aero India, RAFAEL
showcases its new Spice-250 precision guided munition (PGM) and the C-Dome naval point air defence
system. Both can be seen at the Israeli pavilion together with well proven
integrated air and missile defence systems, air-to-air missiles, electro optic
and communications systems, and Spike series guided anti-armour missile
systems.
Spice-250 is the latest addition to the
Spice family of PGMs, being a stand-off air-to-ground gliding bomb that uses
RAFAEL's self developed scene matching technology for terminal guidance.
Whereas Spice-1000 and Spice-2000 are respectively kits for 1000 pounds Mk-83
class and 2000 pounds Mk-84 class munitions, one of which can be carried on a
standard ejector rack, the latest kit turns the smaller and lighter Mk-81 class
free falling bomb into a highly accurate stand-off weapon. Using a 250 pounds
warhead helps avoid collateral damage while at the same time it increases the
number of munitions a combat aircraft can carry, hereby significantly enhancing
the potential of modern air operations that are increasingly effects based. A
special Smart Quad Rack (SQR) has been developed by RAFAEL that can accommodate
four Spice-250 weapons. Like Spice-1000, the latest member of RAFAEL's PGM
family of gliding bombs is fitted with a folding wing and has an effective
range of approximately 100 kilometers. The larger 2000 pounds variant has a
fixed wing with a range of 60 kilometers being reached.
RAFAEL boasts its Spice kits result in a
CEP of less than 3 meters, which is a bit of a necessity for the 250 pounds
weapon as low yield weapons need pinpoint accuracy to achieve the desired
effects. While all Spice munitions are autonomous, using a combination of
INS/GPS for mid-course navigation, then turning to scene matching for final
guidance, Spice-250 introduces a datalink. This can be used for battle damage
assessment and real time target update capability, which increases the weapon's
chances to hit moving targets, even at sea.. Using either general purpose or
penetration warheads, the Spice mission profile can be set to a specific
azimuth and impact angle that are optimized for the target profile, such as a
steep angle for deep penetration.
The scene matching technology makes Spice
virtually invulnerable to GPS jamming while also overcoming target location
error, also at night and in adverse weather conditions, according to information
provided by RAFAEL. RAFAEL officials present at Yelahanka Air Force Station
emphasised that during mid-course guidance Spice's commercial GPS is only used
when INS capability is affected by weather conditions such as a cloud covered
target area. Spice is combat proven and is in use with the Israeli air force.
The C-Dome naval point defence system
consists of a multi-round launcher assembly loaded with vertically launched
canisterised interceptors. The launcher is installed under the ship deck and
can handle saturation attacks by engaging multiple targets simultaneously with
all interceptors ready for instant firing. Integrated with the ships' s combat
management system, the system has two launch modes that enable automatical and
semi-automatic engagements with C-Dome using the ship's surveillance radar for
detection. The interceptor used is the combat proven Iron Dome which has been
used during 1200 C-RAM and VSHORAD interceptions. RAFAEL indicates that the
interceptors are maintenance-free. Up to 10 interceptors can be loaded into a
modular vertical launcher unit. Providing full 360 degree coverage, the
interceptor has a warhead with a high kill probability against a wide range of
targets. This is due to its advanced proximity fuze technology and extreme
agility which makes that the interceptor can deal with most manoeuvrable
targets. Due to its small footprint, C-Dome is also well suited for smaller
ships such as OPVs and corvettes that operate in the littoral.
During Aero India 2015, RAFAEL officials revealed
that the Indian air force has integrated its Litening advanced targeting pod on
both air force and navy HAL Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) that are under
development as well as on operational combat aircraft including Jaguar,
Su-30MKI and MiG-27. It was also acknowledged that both the RecceLite and
Recce-U ISR systems are in operational use with the Indian military.
Pieter Bastiaans
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