| September 5, 2007: Here's a case of smart bombs with a clever, and unexpected, twist. The Lebanese air force created an improvised helicopter bombing system for their recent operations against several hundred Islamic terrorists who had barricaded themselves in a northern town (technically a Palestinian refugee camp). Needing some precision bombing, so as not to hurt nearby civilians (who refused to be evacuated [or were prevented from leaving]), bomb racks from retired Mirage 3 jets were mounted on the underside of American UH-1 helicopters [this sounds risky but apparently they knew what they were doing or else were lucky]. The landing skids were lengthened a bit for this. The bomb release mechanism from the Mirage 3 was then installed in the helicopters. Instead of smart bombs, the helicopter crews carried 500 and 900 pound dumb bombs, but flew them to GPS coordinates of their targets then, at an altitude of about 3,500 feet, and released the bombs. The accuracy was amazing, usually the same as GPS guided smart bombs (within 33 feet of the GPS coordinates)....Of course, one other factor was keeping down the ground fire. The army troops surrounding the terrorists could open fire as the helicopter approached... |