(CLO) In the blink of an eye, a photojournalist captured the moment an Israeli gray bomb crashed into a building in Lebanon's capital Beirut before exploding and destroying the structure.
The airstrike targeted two buildings in an area believed to be close to Hezbollah warehouses and assets. One of the most powerful bombs in Israel’s arsenal was used in the terrifying and highly precise attack.
Series of photos shows smart bomb attacking building in Beirut (source: AP)
What kind of weapon is that?
The weapon was a guided bomb, also known as a smart bomb, launched from an Israeli jet.
The tail and nose sections indicate that the warhead was a 2,000-pound (907 kg) warhead equipped with an Israeli-made SPICE guidance system, according to Richard Weir, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch's Crisis, Conflict, and Weapons Division.
SPICE, which stands for Smart, Precise-Impact and Cost-Effective, is a guidance system manufactured by the Israeli government-owned company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It is attached to a standard unguided bomb to guide the weapon to its target.
Source: Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Graphics: AP
Why did Israel use this type of bomb?
Rafael advertises that the SPICE kit can operate day or night, in bad weather and in areas with GPS interference. The company says the weapon has “high lethality and low collateral damage” and “high accuracy.”
It also keeps attack aircraft out of harm's way. The 2,000-pound version can be launched up to 60 kilometers from its target. Rafael also makes smaller versions.
Once dropped from an Israeli strike fighter such as an F-15 or US-made F-16, the bomb glides toward its target, adjusting its flight path with moving wings.
Defense and military analyst Joseph Dempsey at the International Institute for Strategic Studies agrees that the photos show the weapon is a 2,000-pound SPICE bomb.
The guidance system is believed to rely on GPS and an electro-optical guidance system, which uses cameras or sensors to identify the bomb’s target. The destructive nature of the weapon depends on many factors, including the size of the warhead and how it is combined, he said.
“It was clearly a delayed fuse. It was buried in the ground and detonated, which limited the fragmentation and blast damage of the attack,” Weir said.
That's why the destruction was almost entirely confined to the target building. People standing a few hundred meters away barely felt the blast and didn't see much debris.
Where was this bomb made?
"The instruction set for SPICE 2000 is produced by Rafael in Israel, but the extent of dependence on foreign subcomponents is unclear," said Dempsey.
In 2019, Rafael and US defense contractor Lockheed Martin signed a cooperation agreement to manufacture and sell SPICE guidance kits in the US. At the time, the companies said that production of more than 60% of SPICE systems was located in eight US states.
In late October 2023, weeks after the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, the US State Department issued a letter approving the export of additional SPICE bomb clusters to Israel.
The explosive warhead is a basic bomb, in this case probably a 2,000-pound MK-84 type explosive, in which the nose and tail sections have been converted into guidance systems.
Hoai Phuong (according to AP)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/can-cah-qua-bom-sieu-chinh-xac-cua-israel-phong-vao-toa-nha-thu-do-lebanon-post318278.html
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