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:
“Sometimes, when I compare myself with other men, it seems as if I were more favored by the gods than they, beyond any deserts that I am conscious of; as if I had a warrant and surety at their hands which my fellows have not, and were especially guided and guarded. I do not flatter myself, but if it be possible they flatter me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)