Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has signed an agreement with Lockheed Martin to jointly develop Smart, Precise Impact, and Cost-Effective (SPICE) 250 weapon systems for the US armed forces.
SPICE is a family of stand-off, autonomous, air-to-surface weapon systems enabling precision, high-volume strikes in GPS-denied environments. It can be operated day and night in all weather conditions.
According to Lockheed program director Dave Pantano, the company’s expertise in integrating weapon systems will ensure that the SPICE-250 meets US standards. He also said that the firm is excited to offer the weapon system to American military aircraft operators for additional mission flexibility.
Rafael vice president Alon Shlomi explained that the agreement will allow his company and the Washington-based defense firm to offer the entire product portfolio to the US military.
He pointed out that operators can fully utilize the system in a variety of locations since GPS is not required to operate any of the products within the SPICE family.
Additional Features
Operational since 2003, the combat-proven SPICE 250 features artificial intelligence and automatic target recognition capabilities to hit stationary or moving targets both on land and at sea.
The light-weight Spice 250 can be integrated on both single and dual-seat fighters through a smart quad rack, which helps simplify the weapon’s integration and allows the aircraft to carry up to four SPICE 250 weapons.
The weapon system is also equipped with a two-way data-link, enabling communication with the launch platform.
In addition to its precision strike capabilities, the SPICE 250 has other distinct features, including autonomous capability, low collateral damage, tactical flexibility in trajectory, and low life cycle cost.
