Rafael’s SPICE Guided Weapon

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Rafael's Spice 1000 guided weapon carries a 500 kg (1,000 pound) Mk 83 warhead. It is capable of attacking targets at ranges extended beyond 60 km. Photo: Rafael

Providing a fully autonomous navigation and precision-strike capability, Spice-2000 achieves a stand-off range of over 60 kilometers. Spice-1000 achieves an even greater range, due to its unique deployable wing. Both Spice-2000 and Spice-1000 are easily integrated onto a wide range of single and dual-seater fighter aircraft, and require no aircraft modifications. It has been successfully integrated onto the F-15, F-16 and Tornado aircraft. It is operational with the Israel Air Force and is on order for the Hellenic Air Force. Greece intends to buy 200 of the Spice 1000 types and 100 of the heavier Spice 2000 versions.

The Israel Air Force is already operating the Spice 2000 weapon, carrying the Mk84 1 ton pound warhead (2,000 pounds). Photo: Rafael
Rafael's Spice 1000 guided weapon carries a 500 kg (1,000 pound) Mk 83 warhead. It is capable of attacking targets at ranges extended beyond 60 km. Photo: Rafael

Spice offers day, night and adverse weather capabilities, based on its dual CCD / IIR seeker and advanced scene-matching algorithms. At close-in distances, Spice recognizes the target and correlates it to the intelligence images previously stored in its memory. As a result of this capability, Spice can overcome TLE (Target Location Error) and GPS jamming. The Spice mission profile can be set to a specific azimuth and dive angle to suit the selected target profile, such as a steep dive angle for target penetration. Spice offers a fully autonomous operation, semi-autonomous mode or manual modes of operation, utilizing a datalink. Manual target acquisition is enabled under conditions where the seeker fails to detect the target (due to deteriorating weather conditions, or other interference), enabling the operator to assist the system in this critical phase. The manual mode enables the weapon system operator to carry ‘man in the loop’ attack for maximum control and agility.

An Israeli F-16D equipped with the Spice 2000 weapon, prepared for a flight testing mission. Photo: IAF