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AGM 142 Crystal Maze 1

Indian airforce operates a lighter version of Popeye called Crystal Maze on Mirage-2000. The Indian variant warhead is around 80 kg and has around 100 km range. Crystal Maze is a stand-off range missile, which means that the aircraft firing it need not come very close to the target. India is reported to have obtained this missile from Israel sometime around the year 2005. The missile is powered by a solid-fuel rocket motor in the WPU-14/B propulsion section. Its 340 kg (750 lb) blast-fragmentation warhead is triggered by a tail-mounted FMU-124C/B impact fuse. Accuracy is quoted to be around an astounding 3 m (10 ft) CEP. The Crystal Maze missile “has an inertial measurement unit (IMU) for mid-course guidance while its terminal phase can use either an imaging infrared (IIR) or Television (TV) seeker to hit the target.”

While the missile fitted with IIR works on the fire-and-forget principal, the TV version is a fire-and-update mode, which allows the pilot to choose an intended target from a select group. The warhead can be either a blast fragmentation or a penetrator. The missile was reportedly was to be fired in Balakot mission but due to bad weather couldn’t be. The Indian Air Force could not fire any of the intended six Israeli air-to-surface missiles called the Crystal Maze from the Mirage 2000 during the Balakot air strikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province because its laid down protocols did not allow it in that particular situation.

There are different firing procedures depending on the mission and weather conditions and a host of other parametres. The laid down procedures did not allow the firing of Crystal Maze in that particular situation, sources in the defence establishment told ThePrint. “Hence, missile and bomb firing procedures are being changed, which will enable the pilots to launch them in future Balakot-type operations or otherwise,” a source said.

The IAF wanted to use Israeli air-to-surface missiles Crystal Maze to hit the targets in Balakot but could not use it due to a heavy cloud cover over the region, which did not allow a direct line of sight to the pilots. Once launched, "the Crystal Maze requires acquisition of [the] target visually by the pilot in the last phase of the attack." In other words, the weapon flies to its target based on Pre-fed Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates but requires the pilot of the launching platform to manually steer it to its precise point of impact through an electronic data-link.

The non-availability of a clear video of the strike came as a setback as satellite images of the Jaish camp released a day after the strikes appear to show intact structures without any exterior damage. “No doubt that a video would have helped. But the message sent across to the Pakistani deep state was loud and clear. Even if they deny, they and we know what really happened and the extent of the damage the SPICE-2000 caused that night,” another source in the defence establishment said.

There were six structures at the attack site, including a large mosque, but the IAF was tasked with targeting three — a two-storey building that housed most of the cadres, including suicide bombers in training, was the primary target, and was hit by three bombs, multiple sources said. Had the IAF used Crystal Maze, it would have video footage to prove its claim. The IAF has, for now, bolstered its claim of having hit the targets successfully by showing some journalists at least one high-resolution monochrome image of the site which shows some damage was inflicted on the buildings.

The Crystal Maze on Channel 4 in the UK was epic. Filmed at a huge air hangar in Essex, teams of six would complete a series of mental and physical challenges in different themed zones (Aztec, Industrial, Medieval, Futuristic and, later, Ocean). The aim was to collect crystals in order to determine how long they would spend within a crystal dome - inside which they would try and grab golden tickets - in the show's finale. It first aired in February 1990 and regularly attracted five to six million viewers per episode, running for six series.