Download or read book Weapons of Choice written by Paul G. Gillespie and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History and deployment of smart weapons In the United States, efforts to develop precision guided munitions—PGMs—began during the First World War and resulted in an 'aerial torpedo' by the 1920s. While World War II was dominated by large-scale strategic bombing—essentially throwing out tons of free-falling munitions in the hope they hit something important—both sides in the war worked to develop airborne munitions that could be steered toward a target. However after that war, U.S. national security policy focused on the atomic bomb, hardly a weapon that needed to be directed with accuracy. The cost of emphasis on atomic weapons was revealed in the general unsuitability of American tactics and weapons deployment systems during the Vietnam War. Lessons learned in that conflict, coupled with rapid technological developments in aerodynamics, lasers, and solid-state electronics, brought air power dramatically closer to the "surgical strike" now seen as crucial to modern warfare. New technology created attractive choices and options for American policymakers as well as field commanders, and events in the Arab-Israeli wars, the U.S. raid on Libya, and most dramatically in the first Gulf War created an ever-increasing demand for the precision weapons. The prospect of pinpoint delivery of weapons right to the enemy's door by speeding aircraft seems to presage war in which the messy and politically risky deployment of ground troops is unnecessary. The potential of such weapons, and their strategic limitations, made the Gulf War and Iraqi War living theater for assessing what such weapons can and cannot do and have important implications for planning for future warfare.
Download or read book Precision guided Munitions and Human Suffering in War written by James E. Hickey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Hickey proceeds from the premise that throughout history, humans have demonstrated a proclivity for using violence against one another as a means to achieve an end, means enabled, in many respects, by the technologies available at the time. Advancing technology has often been a prime enabler of ever-increasing levels of violence and attendant human suffering. At a few junctures in history, however, certain technologies have seemingly provided the armed forces that possess them the ability to fight wars with decreasing levels of violence and suffering. Today, precision-guided munitions (PGMs) with their high degree of discrimination and accuracy again hold such promise. This book seeks to answer the question: Do PGMs mitigate suffering in war, and have these weapons changed the way decisions regarding war and peace have been made? Answering this question helps us understand possible shifts in emphasis in modern warfare, both in terms of methods employed and of the greater concern placed on limiting human suffering during conflict. This book will help students of ethics, just war and military history and senior military and civilian leaders to understand the possible outcomes and wider implications of their strategic choices to use such technology.
Download or read book The Long Road To Desert Storm And Beyond The Development Of Precision Guided Bombs written by Major Donald I. Blackwelder and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the long development of precision guided bombs to show that the accuracy attained in Desert Storm was an evolution not a revolution in aerial warfare. This evolution continues and gives offensive airpower the advantage over the defense. Guided bomb development started during World War One with the “aerial torpedo”. During World War Two the German Fritz X and Hs-293 were visually guided bombs and both experienced success against allied shipping. The Army Air Corps also developed a wide variety of TV, heat, radar, and visually guided bombs. The visually guided AZON was successful in Burma and the radar guided Bat was successful against Japanese ships. During the Korean War visually guided RAZON and TARZON bombs had some success. In Vietnam the Paveway I laser-guided bombs and Walleye TV-guided bombs were successful on a much broader scale. Paveway II and III, Walleye II, and GBU-15s were developed and successfully combat tested throughout the 1970s and 1980s. When Desert Storm initiated in 1991 there were very few guided weapons that had not been extensively tested on training ranges and in combat. The precision demonstrated to the World during Desert Storm started evolving when airpower was first envisioned as a new dimension for conducting war, and was far from a revolution. Now, the continued development of imaging infrared, laser radar, synthetic aperture radar, and millimeter wave radar autonomous seekers further increases the flexibility, range, and effectiveness of guided bombs.
Download or read book Precision Guided Munitions written by Paul G. Gillespie and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the history of an emergent class of weapons known collectively as precision guided munitions (PGMs). Arising from historical antecedents in the First and Second World Wars, the specific technologies that made precision guidance a reality in the late 1960s were, nevertheless, the unique product of concerted actions taken within the U.S. military, the federal government, and civilian industry. Precision weapons did not emerge as a natural consequence of technological change, but were consciously constructed in response to the purposes, ethics, and values of American society. Certainly the creation of important enabling technologies, notably lasers and semiconductor integrated circuits, played a decisive role in the development of these advanced weapons. However, the emergence of guided weapons is inexplicable without also considering America's evolving defense policy; the military doctrine that translated that policy into specific weapon systems; and twentieth-century wartime demand, which stimulated research and development by providing added urgency, requirements, and resources. Entering America's arsenal at the height of cold war tensions, PGMs provided an appealing alternative to the largely impotent nuclear bombs and missiles that had become the centerpiece of U.S. military strategy. Post-Vietnam military operations highlighted a marked shift in emphasis away from mass destruction in favor of inflicting precise, controlled damage. Reliance upon this technological innovation has produced a remarkable three-tiered revolutionary transformation in munitions technology, armed conflict, and U.S. national security policy.
Download or read book Post Cold War Conflict Deterrence written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1997-04-02 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deterrence as a strategic concept evolved during the Cold War. During that period, deterrence strategy was aimed mainly at preventing aggression against the United States and its close allies by the hostile Communist power centersâ€"the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its allies, Communist China and North Korea. In particular, the strategy was devised to prevent aggression involving nuclear attack by the USSR or China. Since the end of the Cold War, the risk of war among the major powers has subsided to the lowest point in modern history. Still, the changing nature of the threats to American and allied security interests has stimulated a considerable broadening of the deterrence concept. Post-Cold War Conflict Deterrence examines the meaning of deterrence in this new environment and identifies key elements of a post-Cold War deterrence strategy and the critical issues in devising such a strategy. It further examines the significance of these findings for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Quantitative and qualitative measures to support judgments about the potential success or failure of deterrence are identified. Such measures will bear on the suitability of the naval forces to meet the deterrence objectives. The capabilities of U.S. naval forces that especially bear on the deterrence objectives also are examined. Finally, the book examines the utility of models, games, and simulations as decision aids in improving the naval forces' understanding of situations in which deterrence must be used and in improving the potential success of deterrence actions.
Download or read book Precision Guided Munitions and Human Suffering in War written by James E. Hickey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-22 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Hickey proceeds from the premise that throughout history, humans have demonstrated a proclivity for using violence against one another as a means to achieve an end, means enabled, in many respects, by the technologies available at the time. Advancing technology has often been a prime enabler of ever-increasing levels of violence and attendant human suffering. At a few junctures in history, however, certain technologies have seemingly provided the armed forces that possess them the ability to fight wars with decreasing levels of violence and suffering. Today, precision-guided munitions (PGMs) with their high degree of discrimination and accuracy again hold such promise. This book seeks to answer the question: Do PGMs mitigate suffering in war, and have these weapons changed the way decisions regarding war and peace have been made? Answering this question helps us understand possible shifts in emphasis in modern warfare, both in terms of methods employed and of the greater concern placed on limiting human suffering during conflict. This book will help students of ethics, just war and military history and senior military and civilian leaders to understand the possible outcomes and wider implications of their strategic choices to use such technology.
Download or read book Precision Guided Munitions and the New Era of Warfare written by Richard P. Hallion and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Weapons Acquisition written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Effects of Nuclear Earth Penetrator and Other Weapons written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2005-10-06 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Underground facilities are used extensively by many nations to conceal and protect strategic military functions and weapons' stockpiles. Because of their depth and hardened status, however, many of these strategic hard and deeply buried targets could only be put at risk by conventional or nuclear earth penetrating weapons (EPW). Recently, an engineering feasibility study, the robust nuclear earth penetrator program, was started by DOE and DOD to determine if a more effective EPW could be designed using major components of existing nuclear weapons. This activity has created some controversy about, among other things, the level of collateral damage that would ensue if such a weapon were used. To help clarify this issue, the Congress, in P.L. 107-314, directed the Secretary of Defense to request from the NRC a study of the anticipated health and environmental effects of nuclear earth-penetrators and other weapons and the effect of both conventional and nuclear weapons against the storage of biological and chemical weapons. This report provides the results of those analyses. Based on detailed numerical calculations, the report presents a series of findings comparing the effectiveness and expected collateral damage of nuclear EPW and surface nuclear weapons under a variety of conditions.
Download or read book American Guided Missiles of World War II written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II was a significant period of development for American missile programs, during which time the US built pioneering examples of guided weapons systems. However, whilst the German missiles of World War II are famous around the world, their American counterparts have remained shrouded in secrecy, despite the fact that they formed the basis for the later revolutions in precision warfare. Among the most sophisticated missiles of World War II was the US Navy's radar-guided Bat anti-ship missile, which was on the verge of deployment in the final months of the war. The war also saw the first use of guided assault drones, including the US Army Air Force's Aphrodite program of 1944, and the US Navy's Project Anvil and TDR-1. This book draws back the veil on these weapons, examining the principal avenues of missile development in America during World War II, including the early glide bombs, radio-controlled bombs and electro-optically controlled bombs. Some of the more peculiar efforts, such as the “Bat bomb” and pigeon-guided bombs, are also explored. The text is supported by specially commissioned, full-colour artwork and diagrams.
Download or read book Precision guided Weapons written by James Digby and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first part of this paper discusses enough about the mechanics of these weapons to give the reader a feel for how they work and provide brief descriptions of some of the more important weapons associated with non-nuclear land combat. The brief treatment here mentions only a fraction of current PGM developments; it is characteristic of the pace of development that dozens of new PGM types in many countries reach operational testing each year. The second part of the paper focusses on a number of important and so far unresolved implications of the new weapons; it discusses their likely effects on force posture and on the conduct of warfare. For example, what is their effect on the relative usefulness of the advanced tank, the complex fighter-bomber, and the big aircraft carrier. What will be the consequences for the organization of land forces, and for their tactics.
Download or read book Precision guided Munitions and Human Suffering in War written by James E. Hickey (Ph. D.) and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Weapons Acquisition written by DIANE Publishing Company and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1995-10 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The military services expect PGM accuracy & lethality to reduce the number of launch platforms & soldiers required to counter specific targets. This report considers only munitions that: are surface-to-surface, indirect fire weapons or are air-to-surface; or have a nominal standoff from their launching platform about 5 nautical miles or more. Graphs & tables. Includes fact sheets on missiles: Tomahawk, Standoff Land Attack, Sensor Fuzed Weapon, Penguin, Maverick, Guided Bomb Units, Enhanced Fiber Optic, etc.
Download or read book Weapons Acquisition written by United States Accounting Office (GAO) and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Weapons Acquisition: Precision Guided Munitions in Inventory, Production, and Development
Download or read book Dual Use Technologies and Export Control in the Post Cold War Era written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1994-02-01 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book arises from a joint NAS-Russian Academy of Sciences program to explore possible new approaches to the control of sensitive dual-use technologies, with respect to expanded trade between Western advanced industrialized countries and the republics of the former Soviet Union as well as to the export trade of the Russian and other CIS republics with countries of proliferation concern.
Download or read book Precision Guided Munitions and the Law of War written by Danielle L. Gilmore and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Warriors and Wizards written by Martin J Bollinger and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2010-10-15 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August 1943, the Luftwaffe began using radio-controlled anti-ship glide bombs and within weeks they had sunk one battleship, crippled another, wrecked two cruisers, and destroyed numerous merchant ships. Yet, a year later the Germans abandoned their use, defeated by scientists who developed electronic systems to jam the radio links that guided the bombs. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, Martin Bollinger examines what happened from both a historical and technological perspective and lays out a mission-by-mission analysis of effectiveness. Based on interviews with participants, intelligence documents, and archival records in four countries, his book chronicles the yearlong battle between the Allied seamen (the warriors) and the scientists (the wizards) for a story of courage, technical achievement, and sacrifice.
