When were they used? Dumb bombs were used during World War 2 until Vietnam.
What type of guidance did they have? Dumb bombs had no guidance once they came out of the airplane.
It could take up to 3,000 bombs to take out a area the size of an aircraft hangar
How much do they cost? Not a whole lot, sometimes a few hundred dollars a bomb. But these bombs were packed in huge loads, making each drop a little more expensive.
How can the enemy make them inaccurate? Since these bombs don't have guidance in the first place, making a target
harder to hit then it already is is quite easy. Doing things such as turning off all the lights in an area
to make it pitch black works sometimes because it's hard to see the correct target.
Laser-Guided Bomb
Technical Name? JDAM- Joint Direct Attack Munition
Developer: Boeing North America
Length: 12 feet, 10.5 inches
Weight: 2,500 pounds
Range: 5 to 15 nautical miles
Altitude: 30,000 feet or more
When were they used? Laser-Guided bombs saw action in Vietnam, however they weren't entirely accurate
and they weren't used in full force until Desert Storm. Laser-Guided bombs are still in development
and were used in Operation: Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan
What type of guidance did they have? This can be guided in two different ways. If the pilot already knows
where the target is, the pilot can lock the missile onto the target and launch it. The other option is to
manually fire the missile and guide it with a laser guidance system.
How much do they cost? It depends on the size of the weapon. They tend to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but not many of them
are needed to destroy a target, so they are worth the money.
How can the enemy make them inaccurate? It's quite hard for the enemy to make these bombs inaccurate.
This is due in part to two things:
When were they used? They were also used during Desert Storm. The military is now becoming more favorable to these
kinds of weapons because they don't require a clear line of sight.
What type of guidance did they have? The coordinates are loaded into the aircraft and can be manually changed by pilots at the target.
How much do they cost? They cost about the same amount as a laser-guided bomb
How can the enemy make them inaccurate? There is no known way that the enemy can intercept the signals between the satellite
and the onboard computer. However, these bombs are better at a lower altitude, but this leaves the weapon and plane more
vulnerable to being hit by anti-aircraft fire and anti-missile systems. Dropping them from a higher altitude lowers the accuracy.
AMRAAM
Technical Name- AIR-120 AMRAAM
Developer: Hughers Aircraft and Raytheon Co.
Length: 143.9 inches
Weight: 335 pounds
Range: 20+ miles supersonic speeds
When were they used? They became deployable in 1981.
What type of guidance did they have? Once a missile closes in on a target, the active radar tells it to intercept it and destroy. This allows
a pilot to fire multiple missiles at once.
How much do they cost? $386,000
How can the enemy make them inaccurate? Using decoys that attract the missile can throw them off or trying to outmanuever the missile. Outmanuevering the missile is very
hard since most enemy planes are not supersonic.
Tomahawk/Cruise Missile
Developer: Boeing
Length: 20 feet 9 inches
Weight: 3,150
Range: 1,500+ miles
When were they used? They were deployed in January 1977
What type of guidance was used: GPS and terrain mapping to form complicated routes that make it hard to detect and shoot down
How much do they cost: $1 million dollars plus $160,000 to convert a missile to be able to launch from a B-52 bomber
How can the enemy make them inaccurate? They are quite hard to detect. They fly in complicated ways and fly very low almost
below radar detection, they also fly at supersonic speeds. This makes them deadly against both us and the enemy, because someday the enemy might develop them
