A guided bomb (also known as a smart bomb, guided bomb unit, or GBU) is a precision-guided munition intended to precisely hit a specific target, and to minimize damage to things other than the target.
Because the damage effects of explosive weapons fall off with distance according to a power law, 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 may be somewhat reduced.
The creation of precision-guided munitions resulted in the retroactive renaming of older bombs as unguided bombs or "dumb bombs".
Read more about Guided Bomb: History
Famous quotes containing the words guided and/or bomb:
“As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions, the LORD alone guided him...”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 32:11,12.
“... There, there,
What you complain of, all the nations share.
Their effort is a mounting ecstasy
That when it gets too exquisite to bear
Will find relief in one burst. You shall see.
Thats what a certain bomb was sent to be.”
—Robert Frost (18741963)