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Definition: smart weapon


Computer-controlled munitions. Smart weapons include precision-guided bombs that have great accuracy, smart bullets that can change their trajectory and smart land mines that deactivate at a certain time. Advanced technology offers the military more clever ways of killing the enemy, while some of the methods are designed to eliminate or lessen collateral damage. The term may also refer to smart guns that work only for their owner. See smart gun and UAV.

Send a Drone; Get the GPS Data
Today's weapons are a far cry from the ones used in previous battles. For example, a drone can be fed the aerial image of an enemy's tank or rocket launcher. When the drone, which may use AI pattern recognition, is sent into enemy territory, it looks for a matching target on the ground. When found, it returns home and transmits the exact GPS coordinates of the target to a missile that, when fired, hits the target directly.

Drone Weaponry
Hand-sized drones can be fed facial images of targeted people. Carrying an explosive no heavier than three grams, the drone can fly directly to a person's skull and deliver the payload. Such drones can also be given generic facial parameters, and thousands can be released from a plane, each killing one person in the vicinity on the ground.