Precision Bombing of Iraqi Targets Seen

Videotape released by the U.S. military today showed jets bombing sites in Iraq with what appeared to be pinpoint accuracy.

Although the black-and-white tape often looked fuzzy, the targets were well defined and offered a dramatic display of the precise strikes made possible by the sophisticated targeting equipment aboard U.S. aircraft.

Gen. Charles Horner, U.S. Air Force commander in the Persian Gulf, described for reporters pictures of two laser-guided “smart bombs” gliding into fortified bunkers in Iraq, and of a third bomb shown penetrating the rooftop air shaft of a modern high-rise building after the target was fixed by the crosshatch of the infrared sighting device.

Horner identified the building as “the headquarters of my counterpart,” the chief of the Iraqi air force. The bomb, released by an F-117 Stealth bomber, appeared to peel the building apart from the top in a massive explosion.

Another sequence showed two bombs flying through the door of a Scud missile storage bunker, which disappeared in a blinding flash.

Retired Air Force Gen. Michael Dugan, on CBS, described the bombing of the building as “a direct overflight kind of attack” with the F-117 at several thousand feet altitude.

“The bomb keeps up with the airplane as it flys over,” Dugan said, “and (the plane) is right over the target when the bomb hits.”

Dugan narrated another sequence, showing a bomb dropped on an airstrip in a low-altitude attack. The bombs are released and the aircraft turns off to the side while the weapons-system operator aboard the aircraft keeps his cross hairs centered on the target.

“It takes a great deal of coordination” between the pilot and the weapons operator, Dugan said.