"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power [with] guided missiles and misguided men."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1962 the United States Air Force (USAF) began research into developing a laser-guided weapon that could be used to target stationary targets accurately. During World War II, unguided bombs dropped by aircraft caused immense damage, but many bombs were often required to hit one target successfully. From a military perspective the risk to bomber pilots from antiaircraft fire had been great, and there had been a terrible toll of deaths and injuries among civilians at some distance from the actual targets.
By 1967 the USAF had produced the first laser- guided bomb, the BOLT-117, and were able to use it during the Vietnam War the following year. This breakthrough in ordnance capability turned unguided, "dumb" bombs (which simply fall to the ground) into precision guided, "smart" bombs.
Laser-guided bombs rely upon the target being illuminated by a laser beam from the releasing aircraft, an accompanying aircraft, or a unit operating on the ground. The laser light reflects off the target to form an inverted cone, or "basket". After releasing the bomb, personnel in the aircraft direct it to the cone by means of signals sent to the bomb's control fins. However, early use of laser-guided bombs proved to be literally hit or miss. If pilots were faced with bad weather, the weapon became virtually redundant.
Refinements in laser and computer technology led to more sophisticated and deadly laser-guided missiles. First deployed with huge success during the Gulf War in 1991, aircraft acting alone were able to direct a laser that could emit a heat signature on the target. Once locked on to the target the missile follows that heat, even if the target is moving. Although still prone to error, laser-guided weaponry has gone some way to reducing the loss of innocent lives.
