Publication

This paper examines the role of smart bomb technology in modern warfare. The author argues that military developments away from destruction-based operations (DBO) and towards effects-based operations (EBO) have shifted the emphasis of air-to-surface warfare from the annihilation of the enemy to the targeting of strategic assets. He further explains that while in the past, the possibility of missing the target made air-to-surface campaigns against terrorism costly in political terms, smart bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) systems now allow armies to effectively strike terrorist fighters.