What is a smart bomb that Israel has used to flatten buildings in Lebanon?

It’s a video that has been shared widely on social media. A building in Lebanon’s Beirut was flattened within minutes after Israel dropped a bomb on it on Tuesday (October 22).

Now a photograph by an Associated Press photographer has captured a rare moment before the bomb hit the building. The battleship-grey explosive appears to be a smart bomb – one of the most powerful in Israel’s arsenal.

Israel had warned people to evacuate two buildings in the Beirut suburb 40 minutes before the strike. It claimed that the structure housed Hezbollah facilities.

As visuals of the bomb before detonating were shared, independent arms researchers believed that the weapon was a guided bomb, also known as a smart bomb or SPICE bomb, launched from an Israeli jet.

What is the smart bomb that Israel has used in Lebanon?

An examination by independent arms researchers suggests the weapon used to bring down the building was a guided bomb, also known as a smart bomb, launched from an Israeli jet.

The tail fin and nose sections indicate this was a 2,000-pound warhead fitted with an Israeli-made guidance kit known as SPICE, according to Richard Weir, a senior conflict, crisis and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch.

SPICE — Smart, Precise-Impact and Cost-Effective — guidance systems are made by Israel’s government-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. They are attached to a standard unguided bomb to direct the weapon to its target.

Minutes before the strike brought down the building, there were two smaller strikes on it, in what Israel’s military often refers to as a “knock on the roof” warning strike, according to AP journalists at the scene. The practice has been observed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, where over 40,000 have been killed, according to local officials who don’t distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.

The Israeli military declined to comment about the type of weapon used in Beirut.

What makes these bombs so deadly?

Rafael advertises SPICE kits as being able to operate day or night, through bad weather, and in areas jammed against GPS. It says the weapons offer “high lethality and low collateral damage” and “pinpoint hit accuracy.”

It also keeps the attacking aircraft out of harm’s way. The 2,000-pound version can be launched as far as 60 kilometres from its target. Rafael also makes smaller versions. Once released by an attacking Israeli warplane such as an American-made F-15 or F-16, the bomb glides toward its target, adjusting course using movable fins.

Joseph Dempsey, a defence and military analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, agreed the photos indicated the weapon was a 2,000-pound SPICE bomb. He said the guidance system is thought to rely on GPS and what are known as electro-optical guidance systems, which use cameras or sensors to zero in on the bomb’s target.

The destructive nature of the weapon comes down to many factors, including the size of the warhead and the way it is fused. “This was clearly a delayed action fuse. It buried down into the ground (and) detonated, which has the effect of limiting the fragmentation and blast damage of this particular strike,” Weir said.

That explains why the destruction was limited almost entirely to the targeted building. People standing a few hundred metres away felt little to nothing from the blast and didn’t see much fragmentation.

Is the bomb made in Israel?

The answer isn’t straightforward. “The guidance kits for the SPICE 2000 are manufactured by Rafael in Israel, though the level of reliance on foreign sub-components is unclear,” Dempsey said.

In 2019, Rafael and US defence contractor Lockheed Martin signed a deal to work together to build and sell SPICE guidance kits in the US. At the time, the companies said production of over 60 per cent of the SPICE system was spread across eight US states.

In late October 2023, weeks after Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack, the US State Department issued a letter approving the export of additional SPICE bomb assemblies to Israel.

That letter, first reported by The New York Times, notified Congress that Rafael USA, an American subsidiary of the Israeli defence company, was seeking the $320 million shipment. That request was an amendment to an earlier $403 million licence in 2020.

The explosive warhead is a basic bomb, in this case, likely a 2,000-pound MK-84 style explosive, where the nose and tail section have been swapped out for the guidance system. The US earlier this year paused shipments of those powerful bombs to Israel because of concerns over civilian casualties, though Israel is believed to still have supplies in stock.

It is difficult to know for sure where the bomb part was produced. Israel relies on the US for supplies of MK-84 bombs, but it and other countries also produce similar weapons. Determining that with certainty would require recovering remnants with markings on them, Weir said.