Guided bomb
type of a bomb
A guided bomb (also known as a smart bomb, guided bomb unit, or GBU) is a precision-guided munition designed to achieve a smaller circular error probable (CEP).
The creation of precision-guided munitions resulted in the retroactive renaming of older bombs as unguided bombs or "dumb bombs".
Guidance
Guided bombs carry a guidance system which is usually monitored and controlled from an external device. A guided bomb of a given weight must carry less explosives to accommodate the guidance mechanisms.
Radio
The Germans were first to introduce precision guided munitions (PGMs) in combat, using the 1,400 kg (3,100 lb) MCLOS-guidance Fritz X to successfully attack the Italian battleship Roma in September 1943. The closest Allied equivalents were the 450 kg (1,000 lb) AZON (azimuth only), used in both Europe and the CBI Theater, and the US Navy's Bat, primarily used in the Pacific Theater of World War II which used autonomous, on-board radar guidance. In addition, the US tested the rocket-propelled Gargoyle; it never entered service. No Japanese remotely guided PGMs ever saw service in World War II.
The United States Army Air Forces used similar techniques with Operation Aphrodite, but had few successes; the German Mistel (Mistletoe) "parasite aircraft" was no more effective.
The US programs restarted in the Korean War. In the 1960s, the electro-optical bomb (or camera bomb) was reintroduced.
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This entry incorporates text from “Guided bomb” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.