Sukhoi-30MKI jets took part in preventing Pakistani F-16s from hitting Indian military installations
The Indian Air Force is in the process of equipping its Sukhoi-30MKI with Israeli SPICE-2000 laser-guided bombs, as part of its effort to make the fighter jets more potent, official sources said.
Currently, the IAF's Mirage 2000 are equipped with the SPICE-2000 bombs and these aircraft were used in the pre-dawn strike on the biggest terror camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Pakistan's Balakot recently.
"The IAF is in the process of equipping Su-30MKI with Israeli SPICE-2000 bombs, to make the fighter jets more potent," an official source said.
The move comes amid heightened tensions in ties between India and Pakistan.
Twelve Mirage 2000 fighter jets were chosen for the "non-military, pre-emptive strike" on February 26 on the camp of the JeM in Pakistan due to the combat aircraft's capabilities of hitting long-range targets with "pin-point" accuracy and dropping a range of bombs and missiles including laser-guided ones, government sources had earlier said.
Government sources said on Tuesday that India will have "all options" available in case there is another cross-border terror attack, while maintaining that the counter-terror strikes in Balakot were intended to demonstrate the "capacity and will" to act against terror network in Pakistan.