Airforces

http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #359 FEBRUARY 2018 // 91

first recorded use of an air strike
is attributed to Giulio Gavotti, an
Italian pilot, who on November
1, 1911, dropped four grenades
(each weighing about four pounds)
from his Etrich Taube monoplane
against Ottoman soldiers in
Libya. He dropped them from
an altitude of 600ft (183m), but
by all accounts injured no one.
Although things then began to
move on swiftly, with aircraft
being specifically designed as
bombers, bombs remained fairly
crude designs, which relied
exclusively on the simple laws
of physics and aviator skill (and
luck) to arrive at their target.
Although increasing height
and speed at release would
proportionally increase a bomb’s
forward throw, during World War
Two weapons would more or
less strike a target directly below
the delivery aircraft, and the
bomber would end up overflying
a heavily defended area. To make
matters worse, ballistic weapon
drops required accurate speed
and heights to be flown and a
stable approach – not the easiest
thing to do while under fire from
enemy aircraft or anti-aircraft
batteries. It’s hardly surprising
that, statistically, aircrew in Royal
Air Force Bomber Command
had a lower life expectancy in
World War Two than an infantry
officer in World War One.
Although the Luftwaffe explored
the early use of guidance systems
in bombs such as the Fritz X (a
guided anti-ship glide bomb used
during World War Two and one of
the world’s first precision-guided
weapons), ballistic or ‘dumb’
bombs were the norm then, and
for many years afterwards.
Although bomb aiming became
more advanced during the war,
bombing raids focused largely on
area targets and employed waves
of bombers – results were often
lacklustre and the costs in terms
of aircraft and airmen were great.
Despite the significant studies
into the relative effectiveness of
aircraft bombing after 1945, most
subsequent technical advances
in aerospace were restricted
to aircraft development. It
was not until the Vietnam War
that the imperative for greater
accuracy drove the introduction
of precision-guided weapons.

Successive

breakthroughs

US Air Force and US Navy

aircraft relentlessly attacked

the strategically vital Thanh

Hóa (Dragon’s Jaw) Bridge in

Vietnam between 1965 and 1972,

all without success. Despite

hundreds of attacks by large

waves of aircraft, the bridge

remained intact until it was

finally attacked and disabled

using laser-guided bombs. The

effectiveness of this one raid,

in comparison to the many

that preceded it, completely

transformed targeting philosophy.

Although weapons technology

advanced rapidly, precision

techniques were still the preserve

of specialist units during the

Cold War. In the 1991 Gulf War

less than 10% of the weapons

expended were precision munitions

(of which half were laser-guided

bombs), yet this small percentage

was credited with causing around

75% of the serious damage

inflicted upon Iraqi strategic and

operational targets. Indeed, the

RAF had to quickly deploy the

Buccaneer (with its Pave Spike

system) and rapidly develop a

Tornado precision strike capability

(based on the TIALD pod and

Paveway II bombs) during the

conflict, so that operations could

shift to the safer realms of medium-

level airspace. This conflict

became a significant turning point

and precision weapons have

dominated every conflict since.

Royal Australian Air Force No 77 Squadron F/A-18A A21-1

carrying an AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile

(JASSM) during tests at Woomera Range. This long-range

guided weapon is designed to attack high-value, heavily

defended targets. LAC Scott Woodward/Commonwealth of Australia

An F-35C from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron

(VX) 23, part of the Lightning II Pax River Integrated

Test Force, conducts the fi rst weapons separation

test of an AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW)

on March 23, 2016. JSOW is a glide weapon with

GPS/inertial navigation and a thermal imaging

infrared seeker. US Navy/Dane Wiedmann