In yet another major boost for Indian Air Force in terms of arms and ammunitions, they have begun receiving the 'building blaster' version of Balakot air strike-fame Spice 2000 bombs at Gwalior base. As per ANI, the Israeli firm has begun the delivery of Spice 2000 bombs to India. The first batch of the bombs was received recently, as per sources to ANI. The weapons have been delivered to Gwalior as it is the home base of Indian Air Force's Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft fleet. The Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft fleet is the only ones which can fire the Spice-2000 bombs. 

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IAF's Spice 2000 bomb contract

The IAF has signed over Rs 250 crore contract with Israel with Mark 84 warhead and bombs which have the capacity to destroy buildings completely. The IAF had signed a contract with Israel in June 2019 for more than 100 Spice 2000 bombs under the emergency procurement powers of services given by the PM Modi-led government. The contract was signed as IAF had wanted to procure the bombs following the success of the air-strike across LoC in Balakot in 2019 in February. 

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The Balakot airstrike

On February 26, 2019, Indian Air Force bombed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp near Balakot, deep inside Pakistan. The strike was carried out in response to the Pulwama attack by Pakistan backed Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit. The attack had claimed the lives of at least 40 CRPF jawans. Following this, Pakistan retaliated by attempting to target Indian military installations on the following day. However, the IAF thwarted their plans

READ | MASSIVE: Pakistan PM Imran Khan finally concedes Balakot airstrike by India, fears bigger action

Balakot strike happened, concedes Pak

In an admission that has been a long time in coming, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has finally conceded that India carried out the Balakot airstrike on Pakistani soil. Further, he went on to make the confession in the context of expressing his fears that India has planned an even bigger operation, this time in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and that the intelligence agencies had 'full knowledge' of this. While addressing the Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad on the occasion of 73rd Independence Day of Pakistan, Imran Khan dropped the garb that Pakistan had put up ever since India retaliated on its terror factory in response to the dastardly Pulwama terror attack. He went on to say that he and the Pak Army had organised multiple National Security Committee meetings once they got wind that India is planning another such strike. 

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