Tel Aviv: The Indian Air Force has chosen the Rafael SPICE 1000 guidance kits for air-dropped bombs. On December 29, 2025, India’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, approved a $8.7 billion acquisition package that included around 1,000 SPICE-1000 guidance kits from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
These kits convert unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions that use electro-optical and GPS-independent navigation to achieve great accuracy within three metres. The contract enhances India-Israel defence ties, with India accounting for 34% of Israel’s defence exports between 2020 and 2024.
SPICE-1000 weighs about 500 kg and offers a 100 km range for standoff strikes. It uses scene-matching algorithms for autonomous targeting, effective against jammed GPS environments. Previous Indian purchases, like 2019’s SPICE kits used in Balakot, integrated with Mirage-2000 and Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft.
The package also includes other Israeli systems such as Air LORA and Ice Breaker missiles. Israeli sources say that India may soon purchase another member of the Rafael Spice bombs – the Spice 250 . This combat proven system is combat proven and was used extensively in the recent wars with Iran and the Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The standoff capability of the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has been extended with a new turbo-jet engine attached to the Rafael Spice-250 air- ground weapon system. Some years ago, Rafael had unveiled this new version that is another expansion of its Spice family of advanced air- ground weapons.
The Rafael Spice -250 gliding bomb enabled the Israeli Air Force (IAF) to hit moving targets in recent wars.
The new variant dubbed SPICE 250 ER (Extended Range) is based on the smallest of the SPICE family, which includes the SPICE 250, SPICE 1000 and the SPICE 2000 guidance kits.
SPICE is a stand-off, autonomous, air-to-surface weapon systems that strike targets with pinpoint accuracy and at high attack volumes, independently of GPS navigation, based on its autonomous electro-optic Scene-Matching Artificial Intelligence (AI) Algorithms.
SPICE 250 ER incorporates a miniature turbo-jet engine with an internal JP-8/10 fuel system, providing the weapon a range of at least 150 km, while retaining the same mission-planning system, aircraft interfaces and aircrew operation.
SPICE 250 uses a common aircraft interface and sophisticated Smart Quad Rack (SQR) which simplifies the effort needed for aircraft integration. Four SPICE 250 weapons are carried on each SQR. SPICE 250 can be directly mounted on light attack aircraft store stations, thanks to its small size and light weight.
The SPICE 250 ER retains the identical external form-factor as the gliding variant using all existing SQR and aircraft interfaces, enabling the same load-out. The extended-range variant also features the same capabilities as the gliding variant, including the recently-unveiled ATR (Automatic Target Recognition) capability, Automatic Target Acquisition (ATA) and Moving-Target-Detection homing modes.
The ATR feature is a technological breakthrough, enabling SPICE 250 ER to effectively learn the specific target characteristics ahead of the strike, using advanced AI and deep-learning technologies.
Before or during flight, target type, location and strike characteristics are defined for each weapon, either by the automated mission-planning or by the pilot. The weapons fly towards the targets, using their INS for initial navigation. When approaching the target area, the weapons use their ATA and ATR modes for detection and recognition of the targets and precise aim-point. Each weapon homes-in on the pre-defined target, either autonomously or with a human-in-the-loop, aided by the ATR algorithm.
The combination of the increased loadout of SPICE 250 variants, the unique homing methods for various scenarios, and the extended range, enable a high volume, autonomous, precision-strike capability against multiple target types, with assured very low collateral damage and at a cost-effective price-point.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
