Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 11, 1991 TAG: 9102110172
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Although such bombs can be extremely precise when they work properly - as shown in some cockpit videos released by the Pentagon - analysts said that laser-guided bombs can readily go astray. That would help account for some of the civilian deaths due to "collateral damage" on bombing runs.
It also partly explains why allied pilots have had to make repeat sorties against targets in Iraq and Kuwait.
John F. Lehman Jr., a former secretary of the Navy, said Pentagon contacts have told him the laser-guided bombs are successfully hitting their targets about 60 percent of the time. A congressional source who has had access to classified data on the bomb performance said that pilots are doing "a little better" than 60 percent.
One Iraqi official told a Reuters reporter last week that several thousand civilians have been killed since the war started, although the announced civilian death toll by late last week was about 600. Photos from Iraq have shown residences and other non-military buildings that have been destroyed. But such reports have been impossible to judge independently.
A congressional source said that some of the damage likely is due to Iraq's heavy use of surface-to-air missiles around Baghdad. If the missiles fail to find a target, they fall back to the ground and can do significant damage, he said.
Pentagon officials have maintained from the outset that some unintended damage is unavoidable. Still, the impression from initial military briefings - with videotapes showing the destruction of command bunkers and key buildings in central Baghdad - was of bombing runs with pinpoint accuracy using smart munitions. Although the full story has yet to be told, analysts said that smart munitions can go "dumb" more frequently than has generally been acknowledged by the Pentagon.
Aircraft using laser-guided bombs bounce a laser beam off the target to be destroyed. The bomb, once released, has sensors that allow it to home in on the reflected laser spot. When everything works as planned, the bomb follows the laser spot with such precision that it can go through a doorway or down a ventilation shaft. Although the bomb relies on gravity for its momentum, it has movable guidance fins that make corrections in its trajectory as it nears the target.
"If you get a cloud coming between the airplane and the target or a burst of smoke that breaks the laser" beam, Lehman said, the bomb can lose its homing ability.
The bombs can fall close to the target or at some distance, depending on the altitude at which the laser guidance was disrupted. Lehman said the bombs also can be thrown off by electronic malfunctions in the onboard computer.
by CNB