Smaller precision weapons are useful, too, in circumstances where weight is a crucial factor.

ECONOMIST: Cheap smart weapons

Precision weapons have already changed warfare radically, even though they have sometimes raised the price of battle.

ECONOMIST: Cheap smart weapons

In several respects, such as the presence of the B-2 stealth bomber, the availability of large stocks of precision weapons, the improvements in digital communications, and the increased numbers of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it was a much better force.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Section IV: Building a Two-MRC Force for the 21st Century

It was an open secret, after the Kosovo war, that American commanders were disappointed by their allies' lack of precision-guided weapons, electronic-warfare equipment and secure communications.

ECONOMIST: The war in Afghanistan

But even as we built airplanes and cars and weapons of astounding reliability and precision, they are still at the mercy of a madman with a gun, or a moron with the wrong fuel or jerk with poor judgment.

FORBES: Computing Desire