58-419: A proving ground is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. They are distinct from military training areas which are run by the military and intended for the routine training and exercising of troops across the terrain. In Russia,
116-456: A decisive strike. Machine guns added significantly to infantry firepower at the turn of the 20th century, and the mobile firepower provided by tanks , self-propelled artillery and military aircraft rose significantly in the century that followed. Along with infantry weapons, tanks and other armoured vehicles, self-propelled artillery, guided weapons and aircraft provide the firepower of modern armies. Mobility, which determines how quickly
174-536: A designated area is usually called a "polygon". In the United States, there are several military facilities that have been explicitly designated as proving grounds. Automotive proving grounds or automotive test tracks serve the automotive industry for road vehicle testing. In the automotive development process, vehicle manufacturers typically test the behaviour of vehicles in various environments and traffic situations. Conventional vehicle testing usually focuses on
232-440: A fighting force can move, was for most of human history limited by the speed of a soldier on foot, even when supplies were carried by beasts of burden. With this restriction, most armies could not travel more than 32 kilometres (20 mi) per day, unless travelling on rivers. Only small elements of a force such as cavalry or specially trained light troops could exceed this limit. This restriction on tactical mobility remained until
290-533: A large infantry force. In both the European and Oriental traditions of warfare, the advent of gunpowder during the late Medieval and Early Modern periods created a relentless shift to infantry firepower becoming "a decisive, if not dominant" arm on the battlefield, exemplified by the significant impact of massed arquebusiers at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. The synchronisation of the various fighting arms to achieve
348-652: A laser designator or for another aircraft to illuminate the target. During NATO's air campaign in 1999 in Kosovo the new Italian AF AMX employed the Opher. In 1962, the US Army began research into laser guidance systems and by 1967 the USAF had conducted a competitive evaluation leading to full development of the world's first laser-guided bomb , the BOLT-117 , in 1968. All such bombs work in much
406-545: A laser designator to guide an electronically actuated bullet to a target. Another system in development uses a laser range finder to trigger an explosive small arms shell in proximity to a target. The U.S. Army plans to use such devices in the future. In 2008 the EXACTO program began under DARPA to develop a " fire and forget " smart sniper rifle system including a guided smart bullet and improved scope. The exact technologies of this smart bullet have not been released. EXACTO
464-477: A successful strike in any given weather conditions than any other type of precision-guided munition. Responding to after-action reports from pilots who employed laser or satellite guided weapons, Boeing developed a Laser JDAM (LJDAM) to provide both types of guidance in a single kit. Based on the existing Joint Direct Attack Munition configurations, a laser guidance package is added to a GPS/INS-guided weapon to increase its overall accuracy. Raytheon has developed
522-417: A target to be attacked with fewer or smaller bombs. Thus, even if some guided bombs miss, fewer air crews are put at risk and the harm to civilians and the amount of collateral damage may be reduced. The advent of precision-guided munitions resulted in the renaming of older, low-technology bombs as " unguided bombs ", "dumb bombs", or "iron bombs". Recognizing the difficulty of hitting moving ships during
580-399: Is as much a psychological function of tactics as a physical one, and can be significantly enhanced by the use of surprise. It has been provided by charging infantry, and as well as by chariots , war elephants , cavalry and armoured vehicles which provide momentum to an assault. It has also been used in a defensive way, for example by the drenching flights of arrows from English longbowmen at
638-695: The AAW-144 Data Link Pod, on US Navy F/A-18 Hornets . In World War II, the U.S. National Defense Research Committee developed the VB-6 Felix, which used infrared to home on ships. While it entered production in 1945, it was never employed operationally. The first successful electro optical guided munition was the AGM-62 Walleye during the Vietnam war. It was a family of large glide bombs which could automatically track targets using contrast differences in
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#1732884130310696-592: The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 which caused the horses of the French knights to panic. During early modern warfare , the use of the tactical formations of columns and lines had a greater effect than the firepower of the formations alone. During the early stages of World War II, the combined effects of German machine gun and tank gun firepower, enhanced by accurate indirect fire and air attack, often broke up Allied units before their assault commenced, or caused them to falter due to casualties among key unit leaders. In both
754-618: The Burma Campaign but unsuccessful for the Germans at the Battle of Stalingrad . Following World War II, rotary-wing aircraft had a significant impact on firepower and mobility, comprising a fighting arm in its own right in many armies. Aircraft, particularly those operating at low or medium altitudes, remain vulnerable to ground-based air defence systems as well as other aircraft. Parachute and glider operations and rotary-wing aircraft have provided significant mobility to ground forces but
812-502: The Iraq War included a single 2,000-pound (910 kg) JDAM and two 1,000-pound (450 kg) LGBs. With LJDAM, and the new GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), these same aircraft can carry more bombs if necessary, and have the option of satellite or laser guidance for each weapon release. A cannon-launched guided projectile (CLGP), is fired from artillery , ship's cannon , or armored vehicles . Several agencies and organizations sponsored
870-460: The Romans . Until the mid 19th century, the value of infantry-delivered missile firepower was not high, meaning that the result of a given battle was rarely decided by infantry firepower alone, often relying on artillery to deliver significant kinetic effects. The development of disciplined volley fire , delivered at close range, began to improve the hitting power of infantry, and compensated in part for
928-662: The Spanish Civil War , the Germans were first to develop steerable munitions, using radio control or wire guidance. The U.S. tested TV -guided ( GB-4 ), semi-active radar -guided ( Bat ), and infrared -guided ( Felix ) weapons. The CBU-107 Passive Attack Weapon is an air-dropped guided bomb containing metal penetrator rods of various sizes. It was designed to attack targets where an explosive effect may be undesirable, such as fuel storage tanks or chemical weapon stockpiles in civilian areas. The Germans were first to introduce PGMs in combat, with KG 100 deploying
986-650: The 1,000 lb (450 kg) VB-1 AZON (from "AZimuth ONly" control), used in both Europe and the CBI theater , and the US Navy 's Bat , primarily used in the Pacific Theater of World War II — the Navy's Bat was more advanced than either German PGM ordnance design or the USAAF's VB-1 AZON, in that it had its own on board, autonomous radar seeker system to direct it to a target. In addition,
1044-647: The 18th and 19th centuries, personal armour had been largely discarded, until the re-introduction of helmets during World War I in response to the firepower of artillery. Armoured fighting vehicles proliferated during World War II, and after that war, body armour returned for the infantry, particularly in Western armies. Fortifications , which have been used since ancient times, provide collective protection, and modern examples include entrenchments , roadblocks , barbed wire and minefields . Like obstacles, fortifications are often created by military engineers. Shock action
1102-435: The 1990s. The Raytheon Maverick is the most common electro optical guided missile. As a heavy anti-tank missile it has among its various marks guidance systems such as electro-optical (AGM-65A), imaging infrared (AGM-65D), and laser homing (AGM-65E). The first two, by guiding themselves based on the visual or IR scene of the target, are fire-and-forget in that the pilot can release the weapon and it will guide itself to
1160-553: The 3,100 lb (1,400 kg) MCLOS -guidance Fritz X armored glide bomb , guided by the Kehl-Straßburg radio guidance system , to successfully attack the Italian battleship Roma in 1943, and the similarly Kehl-Straßburg MCLOS-guided Henschel Hs 293 rocket-boosted glide bomb (also in use since 1943, but only against lightly armored or unarmored ship targets). The closest Allied equivalents, both unpowered designs, were
1218-567: The CLGP programs. The United States Navy sponsored the Deadeye program, a laser-guided shell for its 5 in (127 mm) guns and a program to mate a Paveway guidance system to an 8 in (203 mm) shell for the 8"/55 caliber Mark 71 gun in the 1970s ( Photo ). Other Navy efforts include the BTERM , ERGM , and LRLAP shells. Precision-guided small arms prototypes have been developed which use
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#17328841303101276-458: The Enhanced Paveway family, which adds GPS/INS guidance to their Paveway family of laser-guidance packages. These "hybrid" laser and GPS guided weapons permit the carriage of fewer weapons types, while retaining mission flexibility, because these weapons can be employed equally against moving and fixed targets, or targets of opportunity. For instance, a typical weapons load on an F-16 flying in
1334-631: The German Mistel (Mistletoe) " parasite aircraft " was no more effective, guided by the human pilot flying the single-engined fighter mounted above the unmanned, explosive-laden twin-engined "flying bomb" below it, released in the Mistel's attack dive from the fighter. The U.S. programs restarted in the Korean War . In the 1960s, the electro-optical bomb (or camera bomb ) was reintroduced. They were equipped with television cameras and flare sights, by which
1392-518: The Persian Gulf War guided munitions accounted for only 9% of weapons fired, but accounted for 75% of all successful hits. Despite guided weapons generally being used on more difficult targets, they were still 35 times more likely to destroy their targets per weapon dropped. Because the damage effects of explosive weapons decrease with distance due to an inverse cube law, even modest improvements in accuracy (hence reduction in miss distance) enable
1450-604: The U.S. tested the rocket-propelled Gargoyle , which never entered service. Japanese PGMs—with the exception of the anti-ship air-launched, rocket-powered, human-piloted Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka , "Kamikaze" flying bomb did not see combat in World War II. Prior to the war, the British experimented with radio-controlled remotely guided planes laden with explosives, such as Larynx . The United States Army Air Forces used similar techniques with Operation Aphrodite , but had few successes;
1508-427: The air was degraded. The problem of poor visibility does not affect satellite-guided weapons such as Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW), which make use of the United States' GPS system for guidance. This weapon can be employed in all weather conditions, without any need for ground support. Because it is possible to jam GPS, the guidance package reverts to inertial navigation in
1566-401: The ambiguity between defense vs. offense, as well as the ambiguity between peace-keeping vs. war effort. Precision-guided munition A precision-guided munition ( PGM ), also called a smart weapon , smart munition , or smart bomb , is a guided munition intended to hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against intended targets. During
1624-415: The art of organizing and employing fighting forces on or near the battlefield . They involve the application of four battlefield functions which are closely related – kinetic or firepower , mobility , protection or security, and shock action . Tactics are a separate function from command and control and logistics . In contemporary military science , tactics are the lowest of three levels of warfighting,
1682-550: The bomb would be steered until the flare superimposed the target. The camera bombs transmitted a "bomb's eye view" of the target back to a controlling aircraft. An operator in this aircraft then transmitted control signals to steerable fins fitted to the bomb. Such weapons were used increasingly by the USAF in the last few years of the Vietnam War because the political climate was increasingly intolerant of civilian casualties, and because it
1740-461: The design requirements. The system was sent to Vietnam and performed well. Without the existence of targeting pods they had to be aimed using a hand held laser from the back seat of an F-4 Phantom aircraft, but still performed well. Eventually over 28,000 were dropped during the war. Laser-guided weapons did not become commonplace until the advent of the microchip . They made their practical debut in Vietnam, where on 13 May 1972 they were used in
1798-440: The development of combined arms tactics has been dogged by costly and painful lessons. For example, while German commanders in World War II clearly understood from the outset the key principle of combined arms tactics outlined above, British commanders were late to this realisation. Successful combined arms tactics require the fighting arms to train alongside each other and to be familiar with each other's capabilities. Beginning in
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1856-744: The development of types of soldiers or warriors through history: Greek hoplite , Roman legionary , medieval knight , Turk-Mongol horse archer , Chinese crossbowman , or an air cavalry trooper. Each – constrained by his weaponry, logistics and social conditioning – would use a battlefield differently, but would usually seek the same outcomes from their use of tactics. The First World War forced great changes in tactics as advances in technology rendered prior tactics useless. "Gray-zone" tactics are also becoming more widely used. These include "everything from strong-arm diplomacy and economic coercion, to media manipulation and cyberattacks, to use of paramilitaries and proxy forces". The title "gray-zone" comes from
1914-568: The dominance between unarmoured and armoured forces and highlight tactical trends in each period. Massed volley fire by archers brought infantry firepower to the fore in Japanese warfare in the second half of the 13th century, preceding the rise of the English longbowman. The mobility and shock action of the Oirat Mongol army at the Battle of Tumu in 1449 demonstrated that cavalry could still defeat
1972-430: The dynamic properties of vehicles. Test tracks generally encompass the engineering tasks of vehicle testing and validation. With the advent of self-driving cars , new proving grounds specially dedicated for them have appeared, and existing conventional proving grounds have been retooled for the testing of highly automated or fully autonomous vehicles. Source: Military tactics Military tactics encompasses
2030-430: The early 1990s during Operation Desert Storm when they were used by coalition forces against Iraq . Even so, most of the air-dropped ordnance used in that war was "dumb," although the percentages are biased by the large use of various (unguided) cluster bombs . Laser-guided weapons were used in large numbers during the 1999 Kosovo War , but their effectiveness was often reduced by the poor weather conditions prevalent in
2088-419: The early modern and World War II examples, the cumulative psychological shock effect on the enemy was often greater than the actual casualties incurred. The development of tactics has involved a shifting balance between the four tactical functions since ancient times, and changes in firepower and mobility have been fundamental to these changes. Various models have been proposed to explain the interaction between
2146-481: The event of GPS signal loss. Inertial navigation is significantly less accurate; the JDAM achieves a published Circular Error Probable (CEP) of 43 ft (13 m) under GPS guidance, but typically only 98 ft (30 m) under inertial guidance (with free fall times of 100 seconds or less). The precision of these weapons is dependent both on the precision of the measurement system used for location determination and
2204-478: The higher levels being the strategic and operational levels. Throughout history, there has been a shifting balance between the four tactical functions, generally based on the application of military technology, which has led to one or more of the tactical functions being dominant for a period of time, usually accompanied by the dominance of an associated fighting arm deployed on the battlefield, such as infantry , artillery , cavalry or tanks . Beginning with
2262-407: The latter stages of World War I, airpower has brought a significant change to military tactics. World War II saw the development of close air support which greatly enhanced the effect of ground forces with the use of aerial firepower and improved tactical reconnaissance and the interdiction of hostile air power. It also made possible the supply of ground forces by air, achieved by the British during
2320-419: The latter years of World War I when the advent of the tank improved mobility sufficiently to allow decisive tactical manoeuvre. Despite this advance, full tactical mobility was not achieved until World War II when armoured and motorised formations achieved remarkable successes. However, large elements of the armies of World War II remained reliant on horse-drawn transport, which limited tactical mobility within
2378-547: The limited range, poor accuracy and low rate of fire of early muskets . Advances in technology, particularly the introduction of the rifled musket , used in the Crimean War and American Civil War , meant flatter trajectories and improved accuracy at greater ranges, along with higher casualties. The resulting increase in defensive firepower meant infantry attacks without artillery support became increasingly difficult. Firepower also became crucial to fixing an enemy in place to allow
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2436-486: The nineteenth century, many military tactics were confined to battlefield concerns: how to maneuver units during combat in open terrain. Nowadays, specialized tactics exist for many situations, for example for securing a room in a building. Technological changes can render existing tactics obsolete, and sociological changes can shift the goals and methods of warfare, requiring new tactics. Tactics define how soldiers are armed and trained. Thus technology and society influence
2494-430: The overall force. Tactical mobility can be limited by the use of field obstacles, often created by military engineers . Personal armour has been worn since the classical period to provide a measure of individual protection, which was also extended to include barding of the mount. The limitations of armour have always been weight and bulk, and its consequent effects on mobility as well as human and animal endurance. By
2552-560: The precision in setting the coordinates of the target. The latter critically depends on intelligence information, not all of which is accurate. According to a CIA report, the accidental United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during Operation Allied Force by NATO aircraft was attributed to faulty target information. However, if the targeting information is accurate, satellite-guided weapons are significantly more likely to achieve
2610-493: The project began as a surface to air missile seeker developed by Texas Instruments . When Texas Instruments executive Glenn E. Penisten attempted to sell the new technology to the Air Force they inquired if it could instead be used as a ground attack system to overcome problems they were having with accuracy of bombing in Vietnam. After 6 attempts the weapon improved accuracy from 148 to 10 ft (50 to 3 m) and greatly exceeded
2668-420: The questions of how best to deploy and employ forces on a small scale. Some practices have not changed since the dawn of warfare: assault , ambushes , skirmishing , turning flanks , reconnaissance , creating and using obstacles and defenses, etc. Using ground to best advantage has not changed much either. Heights, rivers, swamps, passes, choke points, and natural cover, can all be used in multiple ways. Before
2726-529: The reduced mobility, protection and firepower of troops delivered by air once landed has limited the tactical utility of such vertical envelopment or air assault operations. This was demonstrated during Operation Market Garden in September 1944, and during the Vietnam War , in the latter case despite the additional firepower provided by helicopter gunships and the ability quickly to remove casualties, provided by aeromedical evacuation . Military tactics answer
2784-510: The same way, relying on the target being illuminated, or "painted," by a laser target designator on the ground or on an aircraft. They have the significant disadvantage of not being usable in poor weather where the target illumination cannot be seen, or where a target designator cannot get near the target. The laser designator sends its beam in a coded series of pulses so the bomb cannot be confused by an ordinary laser, and also so multiple designators can operate in reasonable proximity. Originally
2842-502: The second successful attack on the Thanh Hóa Bridge ("Dragon's Jaw"). This structure had previously been the target of 800 American sorties (using unguided weapons) and was partially destroyed in each of two successful attacks, the other being on 27 April 1972 using AGM-62 Walleyes . They were used, though not on a large scale, by the British forces during the 1982 Falklands War . The first large-scale use of smart weapons came in
2900-534: The southern Balkans. The Lockheed-Martin Hellfire II light-weight anti-tank weapon in one mark uses the radar on the Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow to provide fire-and-forget guidance for that weapon. Lessons learned during the first Gulf War showed the value of precision munitions, yet they also highlighted the difficulties in employing them—specifically when visibility of the ground or target from
2958-488: The tactical functions and the dominance of individual fighting arms during different periods. J. F. C. Fuller proposed three "tactical cycles" in each of the classical and Christian eras. For the latter epoch, he proposed a "shock" cycle between 650 and 1450, a "shock and projectile" cycle 1450–1850, and a "projectile" cycle from 1850, with respect to the Western and North American warfare. During World War II, Tom Wintringham proposed six chronological periods, which alternate
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#17328841303103016-423: The tactical mission is known as combined arms tactics. One method of measuring tactical effectiveness is the extent to which the arms, including military aviation, are integrated on the battlefield. A key principle of effective combined arms tactics is that for maximum potential to be achieved, all elements of combined arms teams need the same level of mobility, and sufficient firepower and protection. The history of
3074-486: The target without further input, which allows the delivery aircraft to manoeuvre to escape return fire. The Pakistani NESCOM H-2 MUPSOW and H-4 MUPSOW is an electro-optical (IR imaging and television guided) is a drop and forget precision-guided glide bomb. The Israeli Elbit Opher is also an IR imaging "drop and forget" guided bomb that has been reported to be considerably cheaper than laser-homing bombs and can be used by any aircraft, not requiring specialized wiring for
3132-402: The use of melee and missile weapons such as clubs and spears, the kinetic or firepower function of tactics has developed along with technological advances so that the emphasis has shifted over time from the close-range melee and missile weapons to longer-range projectile weapons. Kinetic effects were generally delivered by the sword, spear, javelin and bow until the introduction of artillery by
3190-411: The video feed. The original concept was created by engineer Norman Kay while tinkering with televisions as a hobby. It was based on a device which could track objects on a television screen and place a "blip" on them to indicate where it was aiming. The first test of the weapon on 29 January 1963 was a success, with the weapon making a direct hit on the target. It served successfully for three decades until
3248-402: Was developing a similar " smart bullet " weapon designed to hit targets at a distance of up to 6 mi (10 km). Pike is a precision-guided mini-missile fired from an underslung grenade launcher. Air burst grenade launchers are a type of precision-guided weapons. Such grenade launchers can preprogram their grenades using a fire-control system to explode in the air above or beside
3306-555: Was possible to strike difficult targets (such as bridges) effectively with a single mission; the Thanh Hoa Bridge , for instance, was attacked repeatedly with iron bombs, to no effect, only to be dropped in one mission with PGMs. Although not as popular as the newer JDAM and JSOW weapons, or even the older laser-guided bomb systems, weapons like the AGM-62 Walleye TV guided bomb are still being used, in conjunction with
3364-412: Was test fired in 2014 and 2015 and results showing the bullet altered course to correct its path to its target were released. In 2012 Sandia National Laboratories announced a self-guided bullet prototype that could track a target illuminated with a laser designator . The bullet is capable of updating its position 30 times a second and hitting targets over a mile away. In mid-2016, Russia revealed it
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