How a hobbyist's television obsession birthed a revolution in precision warfare
In short: In the 1960s, the U.S. military struggled to strike specific targets like bridges without causing massive collateral damage. The solution didn't come from a traditional weapons lab, but from an engineer tinkering with home televisions. This hobbyist project eventually paved the way for modern
The transition to precision-guided munitions (PGMs) was driven by the physics of explosives: because damage effects decrease with the inverse cube law, even small improvements in accuracy allow for smaller, more efficient weapons. During the Persian Gulf War, guided munitions represented a mere 9% of total weapons discharged, yet they were responsible for 75% of all successful strikes. These weapons were 35 times more likely to destroy their targets than unguided counterparts.
The technological lineage of these weapons is diverse. The AGM-62 Walleye emerged as the initial electro-optical guided munition to succeed during the Vietnam War. Its origin is surprisingly domestic: engineer Norman Kay developed the concept while tinkering with televisions as a hobby, creating a device that could place a "blip" on a screen to track objects. This "bomb's eye view" allowed operators to steer munitions via control signals to fins, a method used increasingly toward the end of the Vietnam War to strike difficult targets like the Thanh Hoa Bridge, which had previously resisted 800 unguided sorties.
Modern PGMs utilize various guidance mechanisms to overcome environmental limitations. Laser-guided bombs, like the BOLT-117 (developed in 1968), require a "painted" target but fail in poor weather. In contrast, GPS-guided systems like the JDAM function in all weather but are vulnerable to electronic warfare. To address this, systems may switch to inertial navigation, although precision decreases from a Circular Error Probable (CEP) of 43 ft (13 m) with GPS to roughly 98 ft (30 m) using only inertial guidance.
Today, the industry focuses on "fire-and-forget" capabilities and cost-effective retrofitting. Systems like the Israeli Elbit Opher are designed to be cheaper than laser-homing bombs by removing the need for a dedicated aircraft to illuminate the target. Additionally, kits like the Griffin LGB allow for the conversion of "dumb" gravity bombs into smart weapons, extending the life of existing stockpiles while increasing surgical precision.
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