August 27, 2007: Iran announced that it had put
into service a 2,000 pound smart bomb, called Qased. It appears to be TV
guided. The first guided (by radio) bombs were used over sixty years ago,
during World War II. A decade later, TV guided bombs showed up. In the 1970s,
laser guided bombs entered service. In the 1990s, GPS guided bombs were first
used.
Iran's smart bomb will be used on their U.S. made
F-4 and F-5 aircraft. While Qased appears to use tried-and-true technology, it
may not work well in practice. For decades, Iran has continually boasted of
new, Iranian designed and manufactured weapons, only to have the rather more
somber truth leak out later. Iran's weapons design capabilities are primitive,
but the government has some excellent publicists, who always manage to grab
some headlines initially, before anyone can question the basic facts behind
these amazing new weapons.
