Smart Bombs Largely Used in Air Strike against Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 23, 2003

Smart Bombs Largely Used in Air Strike against Iraq

The airborne assault on Iraq involves widespread use of new precision-guided bombs,allowing USforces to hit targets more accurately, Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

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The airborne assault on Iraq involves widespread use of new precision-guided bombs,allowing USforces to hit targets more accurately, Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Nearly nine out of 10 bombs used in the current air campaign are expected to be guided by satellite or laser, compared with only about 10 percent equipped that way in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, according to the report.

The smart bombs, which are ordinary, free-falling weapons that have been modified with fins and computer chips, are designed to land within a few feet of their target.

Defense analysts said stepped-up use of precision bombs deployed extensively for the first time in Afghanistan where about60 percent of the bombs were smart, is leading to a fundamental shift in warfare.

Precision bombs, particularly ones that include Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and are guided by satellites, allow US forces to accurately hit targets in unrelenting succession, analysts said.

Television images from Baghdad showed, for instance, a number of buildings bursting into flames followed by bellowing smoke. Analysts said the images indicated that the targets were hit by satellite-guided weapons, because the attacks came in close succession, even though smoke filled the sky. Smoke would have blinded laser-guidance systems, they said.

"Global Positioning Systems have changed everything," said JohnPike, a military analyst with GlobalSecurity.org. "GPS is the reason you can continually bomb with precision even with all the smoke."

Also, with the GPS equipment, the intended target can be changed even after the weapon has been launched, according to Pike.

Developed during the mid-1990s, smart bombs with the GPS equipment, were used for the first time during the war in Kosovo. The bombs cost about 20,000 dollars each.

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