Graveyard of Empires

Last Thursday, we closed the Paveway II instructional series with November’s "masterclass", a comprehensive walkthrough of the weapon’s behaviour, employment logic, and practical delivery techniques. I hope that with final session you now have a very good understanding of how to use the Paveway II f

You'll find attached the kneeboards related to the 4 previous posts: Intervisibility planning (part 1 & part 2) Wedge Pop-up Enjoy your planning!

After several months of work, the full 25-article Paveway II series is now complete. We’ve covered every self- and buddy-lasing profiles, from fuze settings to intervisibility calculations, cockpit actions, geometry, and all the small details that make the difference between “oh, it worked” and “yes

We are nearly reaching the end: the pop-up is the last profile in the buddy-lasing series! We will follow the same structure used for the wedge: we will describe the geometry and the formation setup, then we will discuss tactical considerations and threat management specific to the pop-up. I. Geomet

Let's continue the Paveway II buddy-lasing series, focusing now on the low-altitude employment profiles. Up to this point, we’ve dealt with geometry and intervisibility theory, as well as medium-altitude profiles where clear line-of-sight simplified the task. At low level, the same principles still

This article is the practical follow-up to the previous "introduction to intervisibility" article. There we established the geometric idea of line-of-sight and the simple nomogram method for converting obstacle height and distance into a required LOS angle. Now we can put that tool to work: step-by-

It's now time to enter into the final stage of the Paveway II Delivery Profiles series. After examining the standard attack profiles (level, dive, loft, toss, and pop-up) and the buddy lasing profiles at medium and high altitude, we can now address the most demanding environment: low-level buddy las

You'll find attached the kneeboards related to the 3 previous posts: Fighting Wing Wedge and Trail Circling Enjoy your planning!

In the previous post, we discussed the Wedge and Trail profiles, highlighting the trade-off between optimal lasing geometry and maximum survivability. This final part covers the Circling profile, a method that fundamentally shifts the tactical priority toward target acquisition and persistent survei

In the previous post we studied the Fighting-wing buddy-lasing and used the medium-altitude level delivery as our baseline. If you missed it, review it before you continue. This part covers the next two buddy-lasing profiles: Wedge and Trail. Just as for the Fighting Wing profile, we will study the

In our previous work on Paveway II employment, the full set of self-lasing delivery profiles were covered: level, dive, pop-up, loft and toss. Before starting this article, it might be useful to review quickly the level bombing profile, that will be the default delivery profile for all the medium an

As usual now, you can find attached the kneeboard page to help you keep track of the limitations associated to ground lasing procedures, as we've discussed them on the previous post.

In our previous discussions on Paveway II employment, we explored all the self-lasing delivery profiles (level, dive, pop-up, loft, and toss). These methods have all in common that they require precise aircraft handling and sensor management to acquire target and guide the bomb, in a potentially hig

You'll find attached a single kneeboard page summarizing the brevity words related to buddy-lasing, along with the full dialogue between shooter and LASER. It's applicable both for ground and airborne buddy-lasing. As discussed previously, I strongly recommend the continuous buddy-lasing for all wea

In previous posts, we introduced buddy lasing and is two main types: ground-based and airborne. While the platforms and tactics differ, the radio communication between the shooter and the designator is essential in both cases, and very similar. This article focuses on that communication. Before goin

First Rafale combat strike: a joint Mirage-Rafale buddy-lase mission in Afghanistan, blending precision, pressure, and first-time lessons! As we’ve seen it on a previous post, by early 2007, the Rafale had entered the Afghan theater with limited strike autonomy but high expectations. Armed with GBU-

As you're certainly aware, Laser-Guided Bombs (LGBs), such as those in the Paveway II family, are precision-guided munitions that require, depending on the variant, either partial or continuous laser designation from release to impact. While these weapons are typically employed with self-designation