Wasn't it just flying to a particular GPS, coordinate and exploding? That's quite a bit different than flying to an area and killing anything that moves...

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jandrewrogers 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It depends on the system. Some modern systems can react to high-value targets of opportunity, hunt for targets, or switch to a new target if the one they are after is destroyed before they get there. There are different variants of the weapons to deal with different use cases. The 1990s versions were relatively limited though.

Target selection is much more networked, automated, and adaptive than it used to be. Missiles can talk to each other.

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asdff 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I would hope it is. The fact it is even possible for a friendly system to lock onto another friendly system and fire upon it seems like a pretty big damn issue to engineer around. I guess they still haven't though considering kuwait shot down an f15 a couple months ago. You'd think lockheed or raytheon would have figured something clever out to solve this half a century ago.

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nickff 3 hours ago | parent [-]

This is a solved problem, and IFF was invented in the 1930s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_friend_or_foe

It is believed that the Kuwaiti aircraft did not have its IFF transponder turned on (IFF is and has always been standard equipment on the F-18).

	▲	asdff 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Clearly the problem isn't solved if people are still getting friendly fired.

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kevin_thibedeau 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Gulf war tomahawks didn't use GPS. They flew on terrain following radar (over Iran to improve accuracy), inertial reference, and image correlation for the final phase of attack.

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nickff 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Some cruise missiles have the ability to detect targets based on camera or infra-red match; on the other side, most (currently-deployed) drone types have at most that same capability. I believe that most of the infamous Shahed long-range drones that Russia has launched against Ukraine have been entirely inertial or satellite navigation based, with no independent re-targeting capability.

	▲	machomaster an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Correct. The capability you describe came only recently and only a small part of Shaheds have it.