Download or read book Precision Guided Munitions and Collateral Damage written by Edward R. Lucas and published by . This book was released on 2003-06-01 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technology, state policy, and international law all come together to determine if the use of Precision Guided Munitions (PGMs) is required by the law of armed conflict to reduce collateral damage in urban air operations. Both international standards and standards for the United States, the world leader in PGM technology, is addressed. The use of PGMs may be required by international law, as determined on a case-by-case basis, based on the information available at the time the mission was planned and executed. Factors that go into the determination of whether or not a PGM must be employed under the law of armed conflict include limiting factors such as environmental disruption or effective guidance jamming, and PGM availability. Availability is not only measured in immediate availability, but also considers whether or not there is a need to sustain a long operation, as opposed to the use of force in an isolated raid. This paper also discuses whether, pursuant to the Martens Clause, a rule of customary law requiring the use of PGMs in all circumstances where there was the possibility of collateral damage could evolve. Due to the continuous development of new means of warfare, the lengthy process of developing custom, and, most importantly, the international law preference for recognizing general principles rather than creating specific prohibitions when there is no controlling treaty, customary international law requiring the use of PGMs is not likely to crystallize,

Download or read book Precision Guided Munitions and Reduced Collateral Damage written by Prashant Dikshit and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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 266 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 Human Suffering in War written by James E. Hickey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 300 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 A Methodology to Assess Lethality and Collateral Damage for Nonfragmenting Precision Guided Weapons written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A methodology was developed to assess lethality and collateral damage for the Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) program. FLM is a new nonfragmenting, precision-guided weapon with damage effects mechanisms that differ from the principal fragmentation damage effects for traditional weapons. To date, guidelines to determine lethality, based on mannequin test data, have not been articulated for nonfragmenting warheads such as FLM. Medical and military documentation was surveyed to derive lethality criteria for four FLM damage effects mechanisms and establish guidelines to address combination effects. The criteria were successfully applied to assess FLM military utility and preliminary validation of the procedures was conducted. Future plans include further augmentation of the model as additional data from program office continuation testing and operational weapon use become available.

Download or read book Has technological progress made war more humane written by Soren Andersen and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2010-03-19 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Sociology - War and Peace, Military, University of Manchester (Political Science), language: English, abstract: The following paper will examine one of the more recently militarily implemented technological advances, namely precision guided munitions (PGMs), which have become an integral part of the strategy of today’s undisputed technological forerunner in military hardware, the U.S. Armed Forces. This technology uses both high-end military technology as well as civilian technology, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) to navigate by. One of the aims of this paper is to show how these changes in technology is an indicator of a more humane focus on “our” soldier, i.e. a decreasing willingness to put these soldiers’ life on the line. It will be argued that the use of such weaponry as PGMs, seemingly, in a techno-fetishist way, has made war more humane, but that the rhetoric surrounding them also has had the effect of privileging the wielders of these in a highly asymmetrical way.

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 Collateral Damage And The United States Air Force written by Major Patrick M. Shaw and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minimization of collateral damage is an objective of the United States Air Force (USAF) whenever it conducts hostile operations. While the USAF has often expressed concern about causing collateral damage, its actions have not always reflected a consistent level of commitment. This essay explores the evolution of USAF concerns about collateral damage and examines the causes and effects of this unfortunate by-product of airpower. It concludes that the concerns harbored about causing collateral damage reduce the military effectiveness of airpower. This loss of effectiveness is not always important. For example, when a resource rich coalition conducts an air campaign against an inferior adversary, that coalition can discriminate in its application of airpower by allocating great effort to the avoidance of collateral damage. In a different context, such asymmetry may not exist. Commanders then might have to focus on achieving objectives while paying little attention to the possibility of collateral damage. In either case, collateral damage will likely occur, varying only in degree. The USAF can take actions which will help alleviate some of the causes of collateral damage. Improvements in the areas of planning and technology provide certain relief, but ultimately, political and military leaders must accept that collateral damage is an inevitable part of airpower.

Download or read book Precision Misses the Mark written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. military is increasingly relying on "precision" to ensure its dominance over future adversaries. The operational concept of Precision Engagement is an essential component of joint and service visions of future war. We are spending billions of dollars to develop smaller, more precise munitions to produce effects tailored for specific target sets. Proponents believe that precision guided weapons (PGWs) represent a revolution in military affairs that has fundamentally affected the way wars will be fought. Continued emphasis on precision weapons and reduction of collateral damage during attacks is not only unnecessary for U.S. victory in future wars, it may actually be counterproductive. The development of smaller, more precise weapons is driven more by our compulsion to avoid collateral damage than by military expediency. Limitations in intelligence, sensors, response time, and baffle damage assessment prevent us from fully leveraging current PGW capabilities, which are already good enough to destroy any target we can identify. Our future adversaries will be adaptive and will find ways to mitigate the overwhelming firepower advantage that PGWs provide. Terrorist organizations and other nonstate opponents may not possess an infrastructure amenable to precision attack. More developed foes will disperse and hide their vulnerable targets or find ways to make them politically unpalatable to attack. Cheap countermeasures can and will be developed to foil our expensive systems. PGWs have not fundamentally changed the nature of war and will not ensure success. We should focus our procurement efforts on cheap, accurate, and versatile weapons. It is not the single technological feat of guiding a weapon to a precise set of coordinates that will make us preeminent in future conflicts, but rather the employment of a truly integrated joint force that can seamlessly employ fire and maneuver throughout an entire area of operations.

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 Actas resumidas de las sesiones 24 de septiembre 13 de noviembre de 1947 written by and published by . This book was released on 1952* with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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 Strategic Vision written by Stephen P. Sheehy and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new American way of war has evolved over the years-one that uses technology as leverage to decisively attack the enemy's strategic or operational center of gravity while minimizing casualties, collateral damage, and national resources expended. This new way of war has been incorporated into Joint Vision 2010, the joint Chiefs of Staff's strategic vision, as well as the four services' strategic visions. These visions are focusing on precision guided munitions as one of the primary sources of technology giving the combatant commanders the capability to indirectly and decisively strike the enemy's center of gravity, while achieving the unwritten goals of the new American way of war. The combatant commander will be able to feasibly and acceptably attack the center of gravity by eliminating key operational nodes that will make the center of gravity vulnerable to direct attacks.

Download or read book A Framework for Precision Conventional Strike in Post Cold War Military Strategy written by J. L. Birkler and published by RAND Corporation. This book was released on 1996 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What value do PCS weapons have in future military strategies? The authors draw two inferences about investment of system development and acquisition dollars: (1) Over the near term, dollars should be directed toward alleviating the limitations of weather, intelligence support, and jamming; (2) progress on new antitank weapons should be carefully monitored and sufficient numbers should be procured as a matter of high priority.

Download or read book Strategic Vision written by Stephen P. Sheehy and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Precision Targeting written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Off Target written by Human Rights Watch (Organization) and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed or injured during the three weeks of fighting from the first air strikes on March 20 to April 9, 2003, when Baghdad fell to U.S.-led coalition forces. Human rights investigated the conduct of the war during a five-week mission in Iraq. This report documents Iraqi violations of international humanitarian law, including use of human shields, abuse of the red cross and red crescent emblems, use of antipersonnel landmines, location of military objects in protected places, and failure to take adequate precautions to protect civilians from the dangers resulting from military operations.