Precision-Guided Weapons Star in High-Tech Warfare by Alan B. Nichols The plot could have been straight out of Hollywood. The go sign came shortly before 1:30 a.m. Baghdad time on March 19. Crack fighter pilots, nicknamed Tooms and Fuji, of the Black Sheep squadron in Qatar hopped into the cockpits of their F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters and raced north. Destination: the Iraqi capital 700 miles and two hours away. Top guns, top secretóso secret in fact that even the fliers didnít know the target until word came down. Each fighter carried two one-ton EGBU-27 bombs, called ìbunker busters.î Developed only months before Operation Iraqi Freedom and field-tested only once, the enhanced EGBU-27 is the smallest bomb in the EGBU (enhanced guide bomb unit) series. It is equipped with laser guidance enhanced by a global positioning system/inertial navigation system (GPS/INS). This enhancement feature allows for very precise targeting at high altitudes in bad weather. Only hours before, military officials had finished briefing President Bush. CIA intelligence had placed Saddam Hussein and his entourage that night in an underground bunker on a residential retreat along the south shore of the Tigris Riv er. (Later intelligence would discover the information was inaccurate and that Saddam had not been present in the bunker.) If the decision was to strike, it had to be quick. Streaking through the night sky, the F-117As refueled in the air and were later joined by Air Force attack fighters and EA-6B Prowlers equipped with radar-jamming equipment. After downloading the target data from the cockpit to the bombís computer, Tooms and Fuji released their weapons over the Iraqi capital. Despite their combat inexperience, the bunker busters performed brilliantly. They sliced through the earth like a knife and detonated below the ground, pulverizing the bunker in seconds. As he banked south, Tooms viewed his work on his cockpit monitor. Several weeks later he told Aviation Week and Space Technology, ìMuch of the earth was undisturbed, so you had to look hard to see [the entry points of the bombs].î Stunned by the surprise raid and overmatched, the Iraqis fired their anti-aircraft weapons fecklessly into the brightening sky, long after the U.S. fighters had already vanished. As of mid-June, Saddamís fate was still unclear, but one thing was certain: The military show of force in Iraq involved the largest, most sophisticated arsenal of precision-guided weapons ever known in modern times. Able to be launched from high altitudes and long distances, some of these weapons strike with a degree of accuracyówithin a few feet of the targetóthat would have been inconceivable 20 years ago. With such range and power, precision-guided weapons were a key element in a military campaign that removed an entire regime in a country twice the size of California in only three weeks. Although some GPS-guided weapons were employed in Kosovo and Afghanistan, the employment of GPS/INS technology was much more extensive in Iraq. In addition, the Iraqi campaign saw the deployment of older weapons guided and controlled by state-of-the-art fuze (electro-mechanical devices that tell the bomb when to detonate), sensor and video technology that made the weapons vastly superior to precursor weapons used in the first Gulf war. Precision-guided weapons, also called ìsmartî bombs, fall into different classes based on such factors as size, guidance systemsóof which there are now multiple systemsóand the military objectives for which they were designed. In todayís world of high-tech warfare, there is a weapon for nearly every conceivable objective, whether it is taking out command and control structures, destroying armored vehicles and other moving targets, eliminating communications capabilities, or demolishing underground facilities. Precision-guided weapons offer another huge benefit over previous bomb technology: Their improved accuracy reduces collateral damage dramatically. Baghdadís power and transportation grids did not suffer extensive damage despite the fact the city was pounded from the air night after night for several weeks. Civilian casualties, a painful inevitability of any war, have for the most part been deemed relatively low, especially considering that many strategic and military targets were close to commercial businesses and residential neighborhoods. Behind the greater precision of these weapons is a vastly improved knowledge of the battlefield. Surveillance cameras mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), such as the Predator and Global Hawk, are supplying critical real-time battlefield developments and target information, as are human sources on the ground. Precision-guided weapons have another advantage as well: One smart bomb can do the work of hundreds of ìdumbî bombs. This bigger bang for the bomb is called ìforce multiplierî in military parlance. The force multiplier effect means the same military objective can now be achieved using far fewer munitions and aircraft. In Operation Desert Storm in 1991, for instance, where only 7.7 percent of the total dropped tonnage was smart bombs, it took more than 2,000 air attacks to release some 300,000 bombs. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, about three-quarters of the approximately 28,000 bombs deployed were precision-guided weapons. Smart bombs are also designed for launch flexibility. Modern precision-guided weapons can be launched from a growing number of platforms, including UAVs, because of the expanded installation of low-altitude navigation and targeting infrared systems used for night attacks. Many of these weapons have been developed for different military service branches. One example of this is the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), a glide bomb with a range of up to 40 miles that can be GPS and/or infrared-sensor guided. The term ìstandoff,î in contrast to direct attack, means the weapon can be remotely launched from the target. The Defense Departmentís trend of leaning toward standardized design and performance specifications across various service branches is a key impetus behind the militaryís enhanced flexibility. The most dramatic difference in weapons between Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom is the use of GPS-guided systems, which were developed out of necessity by the Air Force. As with the bunker busters used in the March 19 strike, GPS guidance enhances the accuracy, range and flexibility of the bomb, especially when coupled with laser or other targeting systems. Laser-guided weapons can be extremely accurate in good weather. A bomb tracks a laser beam aimed at the target from either a ground- or air-based source called a designator or pointer. To be effective, however, laser-guidance systems depend on a clear line of sight. The sandstorms and oil rig fires during Operation Desert Storm rendered laser-guided bombs useless, with many sorties being canceled and pilots returning to base with their bays full. According to Jake Swinson, a weapons expert and chief of security policy at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, the frustrated chief of staff of the air command during Desert Storm came to Eglin engineers and scientists after the war and demanded an all-weather weapon. The Eglin research and development people came up with a concept to streamline the entire procurement process, cutting red tape and putting the development of a new weapon on a much faster track. The revolutionary technology they developed is called JDAM for Joint Direct Attack Munition. It is a kit that converts an ordinary dumb bomb into a smart bomb that can be launched accurately to within meters of a target from high altitudes in adverse weather. The kit attaches to the bombís tail section and includes adjustable fins, a control computer, a three-axis inertial navigation system and a GPS receiver. Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas bid on the contract produced by Eglin Air Force Base, which was won by the latter. Boeing, which has since acquired McDonnell Douglas, now produces the system at its St. Louis plant. According to a UPI description of JDAM, ìOnce the coordinates of the target are loaded, the weapon lines up to hit them using GPS signals to correct its course in flight.î The ability to correct its course in mid-flight makes JDAM very effective against moving targets, particularly in adverse weather, which was a significant area of improvement over Desert Storm where munitions often missed their mark because of wind drift. GPS guidance systems played a key role in many of the weapons used recently in Iraq, including the JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) and the Tomahawk cruise missile, a submarine- and ship-launched weapon first introduced by the Navy in 1983. The JASSM is a powered, extended-range precision-strike weapon whose destructive capability makes it extremely useful on such high-valued targets as the scud lau ncher. On the other hand, the AGM-130, an air-to-ground missile, can either be GPS or television guided. In the latter instance, the operator in the F-15E launch plane uses a toggle to direct the flight of the weapon, whose warhead is mounted with a television camera that presents video pictures of the terrain in flight. Other precision weapons introduced in the Iraq war include the CBU-107 passive attack weapon (PAW), a 1,000-pound weapon designed to strike targets where massive explosions are either unnecessary or undesirable, such as radar or communications antennas. The weapon, whose introduction came after a 98-day rush development, ejects nonexplosive rods that have proved to be extremely valuable in minimizing collateral damage. Also new in Operation Iraqi Freedom were two anti-tank, anti-armored carrier advanced cluster bombs, the CBU-105 and the CBU-97 sensor-fuzed weapon (SFW). Sensors that work off temperature differentials between heat-emitting target vehicles and the surrounding environment guide both types of bombs. Designed to take out not only the vehicle but escaping personnel, their skeet warheads are packed with tiny ìbombletsî that disperse widely on impact. A variant of the heat-seeking SFW is the P-31, which can be equipped with sensors that identify ìcoolî objects not emitting heat. Although the Department of Defense is still analyzing the Iraqi campaign, there is ample empirical evidence that most of the precision-guided weapons performed exactly as they were designed. No doubt, these weapons will be refined even more as the military increasingly places its bets on high-tech war tactics. As Swinson of the Eglin Air Force Base said, ìThe reliability of our weapons is getting to be really good. These [precision] weapons are damn accurate.î Alan B. Nichols is a freelance writer in Bethesda, Md.