Precision-guided weapons were among the technical wonders deployed in the 1991 Gulf War. Modern combat aircrafts have a variety of laser-guided bombs that they can use together with other guided missiles. The aircraft releasing the weapon can actually designate the target itself - a laser beam guiding the warhead to its destination. There is no much AI in use here, just very sophisticated electronics and mechanics.

On the other hand, the "Tomahawk" and other cruise missiles use very different technology. Initially, cruise missiles were used as early as World War II: Germans fired hundreds of V-1 and V-2 rockets at London and other English cities. However, they were equipped with primitive inertial guidance systems and were used mainly as a tool for mass destruction in the urban areas. Much more sophisticated guided weapons were used in Arab-Israeli wars in the sixties, and especially in the Falkland conflict (1982). Tomahawk and other similar "all-weather" weapons become the main choice for precision, long-range strikes in almost all conflicts lately. It is fired from its launcher using a rocket booster. After approximately 12 second boost rocket burns and the onboard turbofan engine starts, the wings protrude, and the missile flies as a plane at very low altitude (around 30 meters). This flight method gives the 6.25 meter long missile an extraordinary operating range of 900-1700 km. The guidance system varies between the different versions, but the main navigation system is the McDonnell-Douglas Terrain-Contour Matching (TERCOM) system. Terrain-contour matching is achieved by storing digital terrain profile map information in the missile before launch, and comparing this with radar altimeter measurements of ground elevations below the missile, during a set number of sections on the route to the target. Previously, operators used to map terrains with the sharp differences in altitude as an obvious choice for maximizing hit ratio and eliminating accumulated navigational error. Today, having sophisticated GPS receivers at hand, there is a little chance for such errors and the target zone is narrowed to only 10 meters.
The newer TLAM-C system, in addition to the TERCOM, uses a Digital Scene-Mapping Area Correlator (DSMAC) as it nears the target for greater accuracy. It works by using a stored digital representation of the target area from several angles and weather conditions that are compared with the scene viewed below the missile. The CCD camera has an image intensifier for bad weather or night operations and a Xenon flash illuminator.

Cruise missiles are only a part of the broad spectrum of smart weapons used today. I'll only mention unmanned air vehicles, autonomous land vehicles, security robots, and several somewhat exotic project like Tacit Rainbow and Thirsty Sabre. IS Robotics is developing several advanced projects, including the next generation interface between human and robot, consisting of natural voice recognition device, a non-immersive head-mounted display, head tracking, and wearable computing and input devices. The links below will give you many more information on each of these projects. Unfortunately, it seems that soldiers will always have to be ready to do the real fighting in war, and that our technology is still unable to stop such conflicts. Civilians are being killed even with the "smart" bombs and the myth of "surgical bombing" is still far from reality. On the other hand, seems that robots will also save lives: see the related story for more information on a new type of robot that could revolutionise battlefield surgery.

   Site(s) of interest:

• Autonomous Weapons
  Excellent source of information on history & development of autonomous weapons, along with some of the ethical and logistical issues raised in this field.
• Guided Munitions
  Information on all kinds of guided bombs and missiles in the use in US Air Force.
• IS Robotics
  Several very interesting robotics projects to aid military operations in urban terrain.
• Military Analysis Network
  Federation of American Scientists analysis of operation "Allied Force", including many information on the arsenal used.
• Robotics at Space and Naval Warfare Systems
  Another excellent source on present and past SSC San Diego robotics activities: Autonomous Land Robots, Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Unmanned Air Vehicles, Unmanned Undersea Vehicles, Telepresence and Virtual Reality, etc.
• SACC
  Strategic and Advanced Computing Center, the main source of information on the use of Artificial Intelligence technologies in the US Army.
• UAV's
  An extensive list of links to Unmanned Vehicle sites.
• Tactical Mobile Robotics
  DARPA's program for developing mobile robotic technologies that will enable land forces to dominate the battlespace using teams of mobile robots in complex terrain.
• The Chock Full O' Missiles Page
  Page dedicated to the missiles of today's military forces.
• The Myth of Surgical Bombing in the Gulf War
  Another point of view: what if "smart" bombs aren't smart enough?
• Welcome to hyperwar
  Another analysis of "smart" weapons (dated just after the Gulf War), focusing on their disadvantages.