Twenty eight JSOWs were fired by Navy aircraft in the in the Feb. 16 attack, along with guided missiles and laser-guided bombs. Pentagon sources say that 26 of the 28 JSOWs missed their aimpoints. So much for precision. The JSOW has quickly become a top weapon of choice for Navy and Marine Corps airplanes in the no fly zone mission for at least four reasons. The dispersal of bomblets inflicts more lasting damage than a small warhead on an anti-radiation missile.
Pilots can reprogram target coordinates right up to the moment of launch.
In other words, years of bombing in Iraq have had less than spectacular results of Iraq s air defenses and the U.S. military is looking for some way of causing more permanent damage to the country's military capabilities. Pilots may launch and leave, but the JSOW, like other cluster bombs, is unforgiving once aircraft deliver them. The JSOW releases its sub-munitions about 400 feet above its target. These bomblets are also used in the most prevalent modern U.S. cluster bomb, the CBU-87. But unlike the CBU-87, the JSOW does not spin to disperse its bomblets.