In a video that quickly went viral around the world, an Israeli “smart” bomb can be seen hitting the base of a building in Beirut, causing it to collapse in on itself in just a few moments. It was destroyed by a weapon system called SPICE 2000. That’s what it is.
In recent hours, a video has gone viral Israeli “missile”. – actually one SPICE 2000 guided bomb – which is central foundations of a building in the Ghobeiry neighborhood south of Beirut, Lebanon, causing it to literally collapse in just a few moments. They are dramatic images that highlight the devastation of war. At the moment they are not reported victims and, probably, there won’t be any. In fact, about 40 minutes before the destruction Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had issued a urgent evacuation order for this and another building neighboring area, ordering people to move at least 500 meters away.
Arab IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee had published a post on X with a map and two apartment buildings marked in red, the next targets of theaviation. Both buildings were in fact considered structures linked to the activity of theterrorist organization Hezbollahagainst which Israel has escalated the attacks in recent weeks. “To all residents of the southern suburbs, in particular in the two buildings marked on the attached map and in the adjacent ones, you are close to structures and interests belonging to Hezbollah, against which the Defense Army will act in the near future,” he specified Adraee.
In the video you can see the apartment building clearly framed in the background and a group of people at a safe distance in the foreground, probably aware of what would happen shortly thereafter. At a certain point we hear the sound of the incoming bomb dropped by a airplane and a double roar. The guided and penetrating bomb hits the base of the building which collapses on itself in just a few moments, under a gigantic cloud of smoke and dust. The foundations were crumbled by the powerful explosion. Destructive as it was, it appears to have been a so-called “surgical attack“, with the elimination of the designated target without the involvement of neighboring buildings. At least this is what emerges from the images shared on the social network of Elon Muskwhich quickly went viral around the world.
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The guided bomb dropped byIsraeli Air Force it doesn’t reach monstrous speeds and its silhouette is perfectly visible in the still images. In an interview with CNN, former US Army soldier and explosives expert Trevor Ball said it appears to be a kit nicknamed SPICE 2000. The name SPICE (acronym for Smart, Precise, Impact, Cost-Effective) indicates a family of weapons systems capable of making various types of guided and “intelligent”. bombs. Technically it is a EO/GPS guidance kitwhich allows the equipped warhead to fly and be maneuvered to the point of impact, with a margin of error of just 3 metres. The glide radius is even 60 kilometerstherefore the planes that drop these devices can do so in complete safety, staying out of the reach of the anti-aircraft and deadly ones portable surface-to-air missiles who shot down numerous aircraft during the war in Ukraine.
There are various types of SPICE kits, such as the 250, the 1000 and the 2000. The number indicates the lbs of the header. The one used to raze the building in Beirut was a 2000 pound armor-piercing warhead, that is, well 900 kilograms. Such a quantity of explosives as to allow the rapid destruction of an entire building. The SPICE system is produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.an Israeli multinational that produces and sells weapons around the world. The company’s website states that the system “converts 1000-pound and 2000-pound general-purpose penetrator warheads into ultra-intelligent precision stand-off strike weapons, capable of highly accurate, simultaneous, high-range strikes.” The kit integrates a E/W finder (electro-optical) which allows the weapon to navigate and reach the target, even when i GPS systems they are disturbed to prevent precision attacks. It is a type of bomb that should minimize i collateral damagebut the abnormal numbers of civilian casualties provoked by the current conflict in the Middle East suggest that mainly “non-intelligent” missiles and bombs, if you can call them that, are used.
