Precision-guided munition

A precision-guided munition (PGM), also called a smart weapon, smart munition, or smart bomb, is a guided munition intended to hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against intended targets.^[1] During the Persian Gulf War guided munitions accounted for only 9% of weapons fired, but accounted for 75% of all successful hits. Despite guided weapons generally being used on more difficult targets, they were still 35 times more likely to destroy their targets per weapon dropped.^[2]

"Smart munition" redirects here. For weapon systems customized to a single person, see Smart gun.

Because the damage effects of explosive weapons decrease with distance due to an inverse cube law, even modest improvements in accuracy (hence reduction in miss distance) enable a target to be attacked with fewer or smaller bombs. Thus, even if some guided bombs miss, fewer air crews are put at risk and the harm to civilians and the amount of collateral damage may be reduced.^[a]^[b]

The advent of precision-guided munitions resulted in the renaming of older, low-technology bombs as "unguided bombs", "dumb bombs", or "iron bombs".

is a series of laser-guided bombs made in the United States. Paveway II 500 lb (230 kg) LGBs (such as GBU-12) are a cheaper lightweight precision-guided munition (PGM) suitable for use against vehicles and other small targets, while a Paveway III 2,000 lb (910 kg) penetrator (such as GBU-24) is a more expensive weapon with improved aerodynamic efficiency suitable for use against high-value targets. GBU-12s were used to great effect in the first Gulf War, dropped from F-111F aircraft to destroy Iraqi armored vehicles in a process informally referred to by pilots as "tank plinking."

Paveway

was a short-range laser-guided missile developed by the United States Navy. The Skipper was intended as an anti-ship weapon, capable of disabling the largest vessels with a 1,000 lb (450 kg) impact-fuzed warhead.

AGM-123 Skipper II

Guidance system

Guided bomb

Missile guidance

TERCOM

Terminal guidance

Wire-guided missile

Media related to Precision-guided munitions at Wikimedia Commons

A Brief History of Precision Guided Weapons

How Smart Bombs Work

— on the first employment of the JSOW, guidance failures from a software error subsequently fixed.

BBC: "Smart bombs missed Iraqi targets"

BBC story discussing the limitations of guided munition employment.

"Fact File: Smart Bombs – not so Smart"

— 2006 article about Ukrainian guided bomb development.

Janes.com: "Ukraine develops indigenous guided airborne weapons"

"World War II Glide Bombs" (Part1)

"World War II Glide Bombs" (Part2)

"World War II Glide Bombs" (Modern Glide Bombs)

by Air Power Australia