With laser-guided bombs, India shows precision-bombing capabilities

In hitting specific terror camps deep inside Pakistan territory, the Indian Air Force has demonstrated its precision bombing capabilities, say experts.

A retired senior air force official, who did not wish to be named, told BusinessLine that the bombs that were dropped over Jaish-e-Mohammed training camps were more likely to be 1,000 lbs and not 1,000 kg. Indian bombs’ capacities are expressed in pounds rather than kilograms; the 1,000 kg probably came from a Pakistani tweet, he said.

A a 1,000 lbs bomb is extremely lethal. The fish-shaped bomb can flatten an area of radius of 100 m, and is considered a powerful.

Precise LGBs

Typically, a Mirage 2000 aircraft can carry six of these bombs, but if the bombs have to be laser-guided, as in the case of Tuesday’s strike, each Mirage can carry only two. Thus the 12 Mirage aircraft could have carried 24 bombs, though it is not clear.

While the bombs themselves are dumb — they just fall where dropped — they can be enabled to be smart — a laser-seeker on the nose and a ‘guidance kit’ at the tail to guide its flight.

For these laser-guided bombs (LGB) to work, the aircraft needs to carry a ‘laser designator pod’. The pod is a device equipped with an electro-optical camera for day vision and infra red camera for night, and helps the pilot identify the target. Once the target is identified, the pilot throws a laser beam on to the target — the reflected beam is caught by the laser seeker at the nose of the bomb and the bomb locks itself onto the laser beam.

The LGBs are precise and are used rather sparingly, in special circumstances, such as on Tuesday.

Former Revenue Secretary, M R Sivaraman, who was in the team that negotiated the purchase of Mirage fighters four decades ago, said the entire operation would have been finished in minutes.

The fighter aircraft can fly at twice the speed of sound and would have taken barely ten minutes to finish its job — giving the Pakistanis hardly any time to mobilise their fighters to scramble the Indian intruders.

Lt General Palepu Shankar, former Director General of Artillery, who has commanded operations in Kashmir and the North East, told BusinessLine that the message that the Balakot air strikes sent was, “I will hit you wherever I wish to”.

He said that Balakot was a big jihadist training centre, jointly operated by LeT and JeM. “This is one of their critical camps, where they train lethal groups,” he said.

Both Shankar and Sivaraman believed Pakistan would retaliate in some manner. Sivaraman, who felt that Pakistan would not dare to attack India on the borders, was worried for Bombay High oil installations and other key but less-guarded centres, such as National Aeronautics Ltd. He expected Pakistan to re-activate several sleeper cells across India and intensify terrorist operations.

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