Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Lockheed Martin are working to accelerate the integration of SPICE 1000’s onto the Israel Air Force’s F-35 Adir stealth fighters.
According to Rafael, the integration of the F-35 is being carried out as a joint project between Rafael and Lockheed Martin, at Lockheed Martin facilities in the United States.
The Israel defense giant made the announcement during AFA’s Air Space & Cyber conference in Washington.
The F-35 has been expected to carry the missile, and the acceleration of the project was detailed in the Pentagon’s F-35 Modernized Selected Acquisition Report that was published in early August.
The “integration of Israel-unique Smart, Precise Impact, Cost-Effective 1000B [aka SPICE 1000B] continues to progress with a strategy to accelerate the implementation via a SPICE Lite process,” the report said.
SPICE is a family of electro‑optically guided tactical stand-off strike weapons of various sizes and ranges. The SPICE 2000, the heaviest variant, carries a 2,000‑pound (approx. 900 kilograms) warhead and can glide roughly 60 kilometers. The reach of SPICE 1000 extends to about 125 km., thanks to deployable wings.
The smallest variant, the SPICE 250, is a different concept entirely: a lightweight glide munition designed for man‑in‑the‑loop control, allowing a navigator to steer it in real time, redirect it, or abort the strike entirely by crashing it into a safe area. Aircraft can carry as many as 16 SPICE 250s at once, making them well-suited for hunting mobile, high‑value targets, such as ballistic missile launchers and air‑defense batteries.
The system incorporates an electro-optic seeker, as well as advanced navigation, guidance, and homing technologies that allow for destroying targets with pinpoint accuracy and at high attack volumes in GPS-denied environments.
The SPICE 1000 kit has a stand-off range of 125 km. and a CEP of 3 meters. The SPICE family has been used extensively in Yemen, including against explosive‑laden tow boats in coastal harbors, and both the SPICE 1000 and SPICE 250 have been employed in the long‑range missions against Iran during Operation Rising Lion in 2025 and Operation Roaring Lion in 2026.
While neither the company nor the IDF comments much on its operational use, videos published by the Israel Air Force have shown it being used in Roaring Lion. One video was even filmed from the missile’s perspective, before it crashed into the target, blowing it up.
“SPICE 1000 has been sold to several countries and is in operational service with a number of air forces worldwide. It has served as a primary munition of the Israeli Air Force for several years, including extensive use in recent long-range operations flown from F-15 and F-16 aircraft,” Rafael said.
While the F-35 is considered one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets, the stealth aircraft is limited in the weapons it is able to carry, as they have to be stored in internal munition boxes in order to maintain a low radar signature.
Unlike other F-35s that have been designed to carry munitions in an internal weapons bay, Israeli Adirs can carry JDAMs on external pylons, increasing the jet’s combat flexibility.
“The Israeli Adir is the only F-35 in the world to have conducted operational strikes with an external weapons configuration, significantly increasing its strike capacity,” the IDF said last March.
According to Rafael, “at a later stage, F-35 operators worldwide will be able to field SPICE 1000.”
The upgrade comes alongside the January 2026 arrival of three F-35s equipped with Technology Refresh 3 hardware. The TR-3 program overhauls the F-35’s core computing infrastructure, a stopgap until the Block 4 enters production.
Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post understands that the SPICE will be carried in the internal weapons bay of TR-3 platforms and will provide Israel with its qualitative military edge (QME).
The Block 4 will provide the aircraft with advanced capabilities that allow them to detect and identify targets at greater ranges and in adverse conditions, as well as advanced non-kinetic EW capabilities.
The aircraft will also have increased missile capacity, allowing future F-35s, including Israeli Adirs, the ability to carry more next-generation missiles, such as the SPICE 1000s.
The “Block 4 modernization – over 70 major upgrades for all three F-35 variants – is the most significant evolution of F-35 capabilities to date, including increased missile capacity, advanced electronic warfare capabilities, and improved target recognition,” Lockheed Martin said.
The Pentagon report also noted that work to incorporate extended-range tanks and electronic warfare (EW) pods for the IAF is ongoing, but it did not give any dates for when such technology would be fielded on any aircraft.
In May, Israel's Defense Ministry signed a contract with Elbit Systems subsidiary Cyclone to develop an extended-range capability for the F-35 Adir fighter jet, in what D&T understands was the first time F-35s will be equipped with external fuel tanks.
The new capability is expected to extend the F-35’s operational range, reduce its reliance on aerial refueling, and enhance operational flexibility during long-range missions.
Israel also announced in May that it would be doubling the size of its F-35 fleet from 50 to 100 and its new F-15IA fleet from 25 to 50.