Rafael has unveiled the new version of its Spice bomb guidance kit. The design has been adapted to fit Mk83 450kg (1,000lb) bombs and has a folding wing kit that provides it with a range of over 100km (54nm). The basic Spice kit was used on Mk84 900kg bombs and had a range of over 60km.
Dr Eitan Yudilevich, Rafael's corporate vice-president for business development and marketing, says the deployable wing allows an aircraft to carry more bombs. "It will allow the kit to be used on bombs carried internally," such as Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, he says.
The Spice has been procured by the Israeli air force and is now part of the mix of weapon systems carried by its Lockheed Martin F-16s.
The Spice is a guidance kit that turns simple iron bombs into precision strike weapons with stand-off range. The weapon receives global positioning system and inertial navigation system guidance, with the latter used to provide inertial measurement and as a sensor device to measure the weapon's angular position and motion. The GPS receiver reduces weapon drift by adding inputs to navigation calculations. The Spice's charge-coupled device/imaging infrared seeker provides pinpoint accuracy and positive target identification, says Rafael.
ARIE EGOZI/TEL AVIV
Source: Flight International
