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 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 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 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 Naval Studies Board and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1997-04-16 with total page 244 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 centers--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 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 100 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 James Digby and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report was prepared for the conference on 'The Impact of New Technologies on U.S. Defense Planning for Non-Nuclear Conflict, ' sponsored by The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, to be held in Boston, Massachusetts, September, 1974.
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 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 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 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 Weapons Acquisition written by U S Government Accountability Office (G and published by BiblioGov. This book was released on 2013-07 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the military services' acquisition of precision guided munitions (PGM), focusing on: (1) the planned costs and quantities of PGM; (2) the services' rationale for initiating PGM development programs; (3) available options to attack surface targets with PGM; and (4) the extent of the services' joint development and procurement of PGM. GAO found that: (1) the services have bought or are developing over 33 types of PGM at a cost of about $58.6 billion; (2) the 19 PGM types in inventory and production provide about 130,422 individual munitions at a cost of about $30.4 billion and are used by the Air Force and Navy; (3) the 14 PGM types in development have a combined estimated acquisition cost of about $28.2 billion; (4) the services' rationale for the PGM development programs include increasing the number of PGM, gaining additional capability through technical improvements, and providing interim capabilities until certain munitions are available; (5) the 33 PGM types provide multiple options for countering targets and some PGM can function against more than one target class; and (6) the Navy and Air Force have participated in joint PGM development programs, but they do not plan to buy some PGM currently under development.
Download or read book Modeling the Pre Positioning of Air Force Precision Guided Munitions written by Daniel P. Johnstone and published by . This book was released on 2002-03-01 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Air Force's ability to deploy, employ, and sustain operations in forward locations is a key to mission success. An integral part of this strategy is equipment pre-positioning, to include: vehicles, aircraft support, consumable inventory, and munitions. This research focuses on defining and developing a model to aid decision makers with the afloat pre-positioning and deployment of munitions in an effort to ensure that the right weapons are available when, and where needed. This research places a particular focus on the strategic, global pre-positioning of the Afloat Pre-positioning Fleet (APF) in an effort to minimize the overall response time involved with offloading these ships and transporting their cargo to the intended point of use. The model developed in this study is a mixed integer program that was implemented using the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS). The model considers the various aspects of pre-positioning (forward operating locations, Standard Air Munitions Packages, and the APF) in order to optimally locate and configure each APF ship. The methodology for this model was tested and verified using precision-guided munitions data for a number of scenarios.
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 History of the Use of Precision Guided Munitions written by Tiffany J. Howard and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Precision Guided Munitions written by Randy L. Kaufman and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question this thesis attempts to answer is whether the United Stated military is becoming overly dependent on precision guided weapons. After considerable analysis it appears that the United States has it just about right, now. The relative importance of guided versus unguided weapons has been turned upside down. Where in previous conflicts guided munitions were reserved for specific high value targets, it now appears that unguided weapons are reserved for an equally small set of targets, such as large areas where precision is not a required commodity. Nevertheless, if the prediction of General Lester Lyles, that in the future 100 percent of the weapons employed will be precision-guided, is correct, this leads the United States into an area that provides our adversaries a single center of gravity to thwart. While PGMs have provided the United States Air Force the ability to strike targets previously off-limits in urban areas, they are not the panacea for all targeting problems. There still exist numerous difficulties that need to be addressed, such as battle damage assessment (BDA), training implications, and the prosecution of time-sensitive targets (TSTs). These three dilemmas require immediate attention, and the current generation of precision-guided munitions fails to address these issues.
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
