The Wartime Utility of Precision Versus Brute Force in Weaponry

Abstract

Given the tangible success with precision-guided munitions in recent conflicts, a pressing need exists to question reliance on this kind of weapon, and more specifically to begin to isolate when low destructiveness precision munitions (differentiated from massively destructive imprecise weaponry by their high accuracy and low casualty rate) are most and least effective in warfare. To do so, with particular focus on U.S. foreign security policy, this study discusses the precision weaponry debate; the precision/brute-force tradeoff; the motives and goals for developing precision weaponry; brief case studies of Operation Desert Storm from the 1991 Gulf War, Operation Allied Force from the 1999 Kosovo conflict, Operation Enduring Freedom from the 2001-2002 Afghanistan conflict, and Operation Iraqi Freedom from the 2003 Iraq War; the conditional utility of precision weaponry; and the dangers of overreliance on these arms.