Defense Primer: U.S. Precision-Guided Munitions (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Dec. 5, 2024 |
| Report Number |
IF11353 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Daniel M. Gettinger |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
-
Premium Revised July 17, 2024 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Nov. 15, 2022 (2 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Nov. 23, 2021 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised June 4, 2021 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Dec. 9, 2020 (169 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Revised Aug. 25, 2020 (3 pages, $24.95)
add
-
Premium Nov. 6, 2019 (170 pages, $24.95)
add
|
Summary:
According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), a
precision-guided munition (PGM) is a “guided weapon
intended to destroy a point target and minimize collateral
damage.” In contrast to unguided munitions such as certain
artillery rounds and rockets, a guided munition can change
its flight trajectory to correct for targeting errors, weather,
or other issues, and to increase the munition’s probability of
striking a target. Guided munitions leverage guidance
components such as inertial measurement units, global
positioning system (GPS) receivers, laser seekers, and
millimeter-wave radar seekers. This In Focus provides an
introduction to some of the most prominent guided missiles,
bombs, and rockets that constitute the U.S. military’s PGM
portfolio.
Some analysts trace the term “precision-guided” munitions
to the U.S. development of laser-guided bombs in the 1960s
and their subsequent introduction during the Vietnam War.
Although guided munitions were likely first used in the
Second World War, laser guidance and other advancements
in missilery in the 1960s and 1970s improved munitions’
ability to strike a target with greater accuracy. In time, the
term “precision” as applied to munitions became less
associated with a particular munition type, guidance
system, or measurement of accuracy than with guided
munitions writ large, as well as with the quality of the
intelligence, planning, and decisionmaking that are meant
to underpin their use.
During the 1991 First Gulf War, the United States relied on
guided munitions more than it had in previous armed
conflicts. Since then, analysts assess that guided munitions
appear to have largely supplanted unguided munitions in
U.S. military operations. Procurement and research,
development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) spending by
the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy on guided munitions
has increased as each service has sought to replenish and
modernize its stocks of weapons.
