During the Balakot air strikes, the Indian Air Force (IAF) went in for “clinical precision” and hit the intended targets, a senior defence official said on Thursday.
“The IAF didn’t go in for propaganda bombing. The objective was to hit the targets but avoid collateral damage to possible non-militant staff in adjacent buildings. The munitions were chosen accordingly,” the official said.
In a pre-dawn attack on February 26, 12 IAF Mirage-2000 fighter jets struck a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) training camp at Balakot in Pakistan. Of the 12 Mirage-2000s deployed, at least four had crossed the Line of Control (LoC), to varying distances, to release their payloads, the official said.
The IAF used SPICE-2000 precision guided glide bombs, weighing 1,000 kg and having a range of up to 100 km. Most of the bomb consists of penetrators to pierce hardened structures, while the actual explosive is about 90 kg.
