Guided bomb
Encyclopedia
Precision-guided munition
A precision-guided munition is a guided munition intended to precisely hit a specific target, and to minimize damage to things other than the target....
intended to precisely hit a specific target, and to minimize damage to things other than the target.
Because the damage effects of explosive weapons
Explosive weapons
An explosive weapon generally uses high explosive to project blast and/or fragmentation from a point of detonation.Explosive weapons may be subdivided by their method of manufacture into explosive ordnance and improvised explosive devices ....
fall off with distance according to a power law
Power law
A power law is a special kind of mathematical relationship between two quantities. When the frequency of an event varies as a power of some attribute of that event , the frequency is said to follow a power law. For instance, the number of cities having a certain population size is found to vary...
, even modest improvements in accuracy (and hence reduction in miss distance) enable a target to be effectively attacked with fewer or smaller bombs. Thus, even if some bombs miss, fewer air crews are put at risk and the harm to civilians and the amount of collateral damage
Collateral damage
Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
may be somewhat reduced.
The creation of precision-guided munitions resulted in the retoactive renaming of older bombs as unguided bombs.
Guidance
Radio
The Germans were first to introduce PGMs in combat, using the 1,400-kg (3,100 lb) Fritz XFritz X
Fritz X was the most common name for a German guided anti-ship glide bomb used during World War II. Fritz X was a nickname used both by Allied and Luftwaffe personnel. Alternate names include Ruhrstahl SD 1400 X, Kramer X-1, PC 1400X or FX 1400...
to successfully attack the Italian battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
Roma
Italian battleship Roma (1940)
Roma, named after two previous ships and the city of Rome, was the fourth Vittorio Veneto-class battleship of Italy's Regia Marina...
in 1943. The closest Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
equivalents were the 1000-lb (454 kg) AZON
Azon
AZON was one of the world's first smart bombs, deployed by the Allies and contemporary with the German Fritz X.Officially designated VB-1 , it was invented by Major Henry J. Rand and Thomas J...
(AZimuth ONly), used in both Europe and the Pacific, and the US Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
's Bat
Bat (guided bomb)
-External links:*...
, primarily used in the Pacific Theater of World War II. In addition, the U.S. tested the rocket-propelled Gargoyle
LBD-1 Gargoyle
-Sources:*This article contains material that originally came from the placard at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.* Fitzsimons, Bernard, editor. "Gargoyle", in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons and Warfare, Volume 10, p. 1090. London: Phoebus Publishing, 1978.-External links:* * * * *...
; it never entered service.
Japanese PGMs did not see combat in World War II.
The United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
used similar techniques with Operation Aphrodite
Operation Aphrodite
Aphrodite and Anvil were the World War II code names of United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy operations to use B-17 and PB4Y bombers as precision-guided munitions against bunkers such as those of Operation Crossbow....
, but had few successes; the German Mistel
Mistel
The Mistel , also known as Beethoven-Gerät and Vati und Sohn , was a Luftwaffe composite aircraft type of bomber, that appeared late in World War II....
(Mistletoe) "parasite aircraft
Parasite aircraft
A parasite aircraft is a component of a composite aircraft which is carried, and air launched by, a mother ship aircraft.The first use for parasite aircraft was in 1916, when the British used a Bristol Scout, flying from a Felixstowe Porte Baby, a giant flying boat of its time. This eventually...
" was no more effective.
The U.S. programs restarted in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. In the 1960s, the electro-optical bomb (or camera bomb) was reintroduced. They were equipped with television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s and flare sights, by which the bomb would be steered until the flare superimposed the target. The camera bombs transmitted a "bomb's eye view" of the target back to a controlling aircraft. An operator in this aircraft then transmitted control signals to steerable fins fitted to the bomb. Such weapons were used increasingly by the USAF in the last few years of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
because the political climate was increasingly intolerant of civilian casualties, and because it was possible to strike difficult targets (such as bridges) effectively with a single mission; the Thanh Hoa Bridge
Thanh Hoa Bridge
The Thanh Hoa Bridge, spanning the Song Ma river, is situated northeast of Thanh Hóa , the capital of Thanh Hoa province in Vietnam. The Vietnamese gave it the nickname Ham Rong . In 1965 during the Vietnam war, it was the objective of many attacks by US Air Force and US Navy aircraft which would...
, for instance, was attacked repeatedly with gravity bombs, to no effect, only to be dropped in one mission with PGMs.
Although not as popular as the newer JDAM and JSOW weapons, or even the older laser-guided bomb
Laser-guided bomb
A laser-guided bomb is a guided bomb that uses semi-active laser homing to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than an unguided bomb. LGBs are one of the most common and widespread guided bombs, used by a large number of the world's air forces.- Overview :Laser-guided munitions use a...
systems, weapons like the AGM-62 Walleye
AGM-62 Walleye
The AGM-62 Walleye is a television-guided glide bomb which was produced by Martin Marietta and used by the United States armed forces during the 1960s. Most had a 250 lb high-explosive warhead, some had a nuclear warhead...
TV-guided bomb are still being used, in conjunction with the AAW-144 Data Link Pod, on US Navy F/A-18 Hornet
F/A-18 Hornet
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets . Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and...
s.
Infrared
In World War II, the U.S. National Defense Research CommitteeNational Defense Research Committee
The National Defense Research Committee was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the United States from June 27, 1940 until June 28, 1941...
developed the VB-6 Felix, which used infrared to home on ships. While it entered production in 1945, it was never employed operationally.
Laser
In 1962, the US Army began research into laserLaser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
guidance systems and by 1967 the USAF had conducted a competitive evaluation leading to full development of the world's first laser-guided bomb
Laser-guided bomb
A laser-guided bomb is a guided bomb that uses semi-active laser homing to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than an unguided bomb. LGBs are one of the most common and widespread guided bombs, used by a large number of the world's air forces.- Overview :Laser-guided munitions use a...
, the BOLT-117
BOLT-117
The Texas Instruments BOLT-117 , retrospectively redesignated as the GBU-1/B was the world's first laser-guided bomb . It consisted of a standard M117 750-pound bomb case with a KMU-342 laser guidance and control kit...
, in 1968. All such bombs work in much the same way, relying on the target being illuminated, or "painted," by a laser target designator on the ground or on an aircraft. They have the significant disadvantage of not being usable in poor weather where the target illumination cannot be seen, or where it is not possible to get a target designator near the target. The laser designator sends its beam in a series of encrypted
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
pulses so the bomb cannot be confused by an ordinary laser, and also so multiple designators can operate in reasonable proximity.
Laser-guided weapons did not become commonplace until the advent of the microchip. They made their practical debut in Vietnam, where on 13 May 1972 when they were used in the second successful attack on the Thanh Hoa Bridge ("Dragon's Jaw"). This structure had previously been the target of 800 American sorties (using unguided weapons) and was partially destroyed in each of two successful attacks, the other being on 27 April 1972 using Walleye
AGM-62 Walleye
The AGM-62 Walleye is a television-guided glide bomb which was produced by Martin Marietta and used by the United States armed forces during the 1960s. Most had a 250 lb high-explosive warhead, some had a nuclear warhead...
s. That first mission also had laser-guided weapons, but bad weather prevented their use. They were used, though not on a large scale, by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
forces during the 1982 Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
. The first large-scale use of smart weapons came in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm when they were used by coalition forces against Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. Even so, most of the air-dropped ordnance used in that war was "dumb," although the percentages are biased by the large use of various (unguided) cluster bomb
Cluster bomb
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller sub-munitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles...
s. Laser-guided weapons were used in large numbers during the 1999 Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, but their effectiveness was often reduced by the poor weather conditions prevalent in the southern Balkans.
There are two basic families of laser-guided bombs in American (and American-sphere) service: the Paveway
Paveway
Paveway is a generic term for Laser Guided Bombs .Pave or PAVE is sometimes used as an acronym for precision avionics vectoring equipment; literally, electronics for controlling the speed and direction of aircraft...
II and the Paveway III. The Paveway III guidance system is more aerodynamically efficient and so has a longer range, however it is more expensive. Paveway II 500-pound LGBs (such as GBU-12) are a cheaper lightweight PGM suitable for use against vehicles and other small targets, while a Paveway III 2000-pound penetrator (such as GBU-24) is a more expensive weapon suitable for use against high-value targets. GBU-12s were used to great effect in the first Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, dropped from F-111F
General Dynamics F-111
The General Dynamics F-111 "Aardvark" was a medium-range interdictor and tactical strike aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare in its various versions. Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the...
aircraft to destroy Iraqi armored vehicles in a process referred to as "tank plinking."
Satellite
Joint Direct Attack Munition
The Joint Direct Attack Munition is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or "dumb bombs" into all-weather "smart" munitions. JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Global Positioning System receiver, giving them a published range of up to...
(JDAM) and Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW), which make use of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
' GPS
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
system for guidance. This weapon can be employed in all weather conditions, without any need for ground support. Because it is possible to jam
Radar jamming and deception
Radar jamming and deception is the intentional emission of radio frequency signals to interfere with the operation of a radar by saturating its receiver with noise or false information...
GPS, the guidance package reverts to inertial navigation in the event of GPS signal loss. Inertial navigation is significantly less accurate; the JDAM achieves a published Circular Error Probable
Circular error probable
In the military science of ballistics, circular error probable is an intuitive measure of a weapon system's precision...
(CEP) of 13 m under GPS guidance, but typically only 30m under inertial guidance (with free fall times of 100 seconds or less).
The precision of these weapons is dependent both on the precision of the measurement system used for location determination and the precision in setting the coordinates of the target. The latter critically depends on intelligence information, not all of which is accurate. According to a CIA report, the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during Operation Allied Force
Operation Allied Force
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was NATO's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999...
by NATO aircraft was attributed to faulty target information. However, if the targeting information is accurate, satellite-guided weapons are significantly more likely to achieve a successful strike in any given weather conditions than any other type of precision-guided munition.
History
The guided bomb had its origins in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Its usage increased after the success of the weapon in the Gulf War.
World War II
In World War II, the U.S. National Defense Research CommitteeNational Defense Research Committee
The National Defense Research Committee was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the United States from June 27, 1940 until June 28, 1941...
developed the VB-6 Felix
VB-6 Felix
The VB-6 Felix was a precision guided munition developed by the United States during World War II. It was one of the precursors of modern anti-ship missiles....
, which used infrared to home on ships. While it entered production in 1945, it was never employed operationally.
Cold War
In 1962, the US Army began research into laserLaser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
guidance systems and by 1967 the USAF had conducted a competitive evaluation leading to full development of the world's first laser-guided bomb
Laser-guided bomb
A laser-guided bomb is a guided bomb that uses semi-active laser homing to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than an unguided bomb. LGBs are one of the most common and widespread guided bombs, used by a large number of the world's air forces.- Overview :Laser-guided munitions use a...
, the BOLT-117
BOLT-117
The Texas Instruments BOLT-117 , retrospectively redesignated as the GBU-1/B was the world's first laser-guided bomb . It consisted of a standard M117 750-pound bomb case with a KMU-342 laser guidance and control kit...
, in 1968.
Gulf War
GBU-12s were used to great effect in the first Gulf WarGulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, dropped from F-111F
General Dynamics F-111
The General Dynamics F-111 "Aardvark" was a medium-range interdictor and tactical strike aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare in its various versions. Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the...
aircraft to destroy Iraqi armored vehicles in a process referred to as "tank plinking
Tank plinking
Tank plinking is a term that was given by pilots during the Gulf War to the practice of using guided munitions to destroy artillery, armored personnel carriers, tanks, and other targets...
".
Era of non-linear warfare
Lessons learned during the first Gulf War showed the value of guided bombs.Advanced guidance concepts
Responding to after-action reports from pilots who employed laser and/or satellite guided weapons, BoeingBoeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
has developed a Laser JDAM (LJDAM) to provide both types of guidance in a single kit. Based on the existing JDAM configurations, a laser guidance package is added to a GPS/INS guided weapon to increase the overall accuracy of the weapons. Raytheon has developed the Enhanced Paveway family, which adds GPS/INS guidance to their Paveway family of laser-guidance packages. These "hybrid" laser and GPS guided weapons permit the carriage of fewer weapons types, while retaining mission flexibility, because these weapons can be employed equally against moving and fixed targets, or targets of opportunity. For instance, a typical weapons load on an F-16 flying in the Iraq War included a single 2,000-lb JDAM and two 1000-lb LGBs. With LJDAM, and the new Small Diameter Bomb
Small Diameter Bomb
The GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb is a 250 pound guided bomb that is intended to provide aircraft with the ability to carry a higher number of bombs...
, these same aircraft can carry more bombs if necessary, and have the option of satellite or laser guidance for each weapon release.
See also
- AASMAASMThe Armement Air-Sol Modulaire is a French Precision-Guided Munition developed by Sagem Défense Sécurité. AASM comprises a frontal guidance kit and a rear-mounted range extension kit matched to a dumb bomb. The weapon is modular because it can integrate different types of guidance units and...
- Circular error probableCircular error probableIn the military science of ballistics, circular error probable is an intuitive measure of a weapon system's precision...
- Cruise missileCruise missileA cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
- ER-PGM
- GBU-15GBU-15Guided Bomb Unit 15 is an unpowered, glide weapon used to destroy high-value enemy targets. It was designed for use with F-15E Strike Eagle, F-111 'Aardvark' and F-4 Phantom II aircraft, but the United States Air Force is currently only deploying it from the F-15E. The GBU-15 has long-range...
- GBU-28GBU-28The Guided Bomb Unit 28 is a 5,000 pound laser-guided "bunker busting" bomb nicknamed "Deep Throat" produced originally by the Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, New York. It was designed, manufactured, and deployed in less than three weeks due to an urgent need during Operation Desert Storm to...
- GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb
- H-2 MUPSOW
- H-4 MUPSOW
- HOPE/HOSBOHOPE/HOSBOHOPE and HOSBO are a new family of precision-guided munitions, currently under development by Diehl BGT Defence for the German Luftwaffe...
- Joint Direct Attack MunitionJoint Direct Attack MunitionThe Joint Direct Attack Munition is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or "dumb bombs" into all-weather "smart" munitions. JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Global Positioning System receiver, giving them a published range of up to...
- Missile guidanceMissile guidanceMissile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missile's target accuracy is a critical factor for its effectiveness...
- Point targetsPoint targetsA point target is:# A target of such small dimension that it requires the accurate placement of ordnance in order to neutralize or destroy it.# A nuclear target in which the ratio of radius of damage to target radius is equal to or greater than 5....
- Spice (munition)Spice (munition)The "SPICE" is an Israeli-developed, EO/GPS-guided guidance kit for converting air-droppable unguided bombs into precision guided bombs....
- Strix mortar roundStrix mortar roundThe Saab Bofors Dynamics STRIX is a Swedish guided projectile fired from a 120 mm mortar.STRIX is fired like a conventional mortar round. The round contains an infrared sensor that it uses to guide itself onto any tank or armoured fighting vehicle in the vicinity where it lands.STRIX has been in...
- Wire-guided missileWire-guided missileA wire-guided missile is a missile that is guided by signals sent to it via thin wires connected between the missile and its guidance mechanism, which is located somewhere near the launch site. As the missile flies, the wires are reeled out behind it...
External links
- How Smart Bombs Work
- A Brief History of Precision Guided Weapons
- "Smart bombs" missed Iraqi targets BBC story on the first employment of the JSOW, guidance failures were attributed to a software error that was subsequently fixed.
- "Fact File: Smart Bombs - not so Smart BBC story discussing the limitations of guided munition employment.
- Ukraine develops indigenous guided airborne weapons Article about Ukrainian guided bomb development, August 2006
- "World War II Glide Bombs World War II Glide Bombs (Part1)
- "World War II Glide Bombs World War II Glide Bombs (Part2)
- "World War II Glide Bombs Modern Glide Bombs