“Bombardment”, “air strike”, “targeted ground operation”: what exactly are we talking about? In this Point J, we decipher the military lexicon often used in the media with Alexandre Vautravers, editor-in-chief of the Swiss Military Review (RMS).
“The term ‘bombardment’ is relatively precise since it refers to certain very specific weapons, typically bombs dropped by aircraft or artillery projectiles, whereas a ‘strike’ is a much more generic term These can be missiles, or weapons fired by a whole series of aerial, land or even maritime vehicles,” explains Alexandre Vautravers interviewed in Le Point J.
As for the notion of ‘surgical strike’, it appeared for the first time in 1991, during the Gulf War, in reference to operations over Kuwait and Iraq. This term was intended to emphasize the precision of targeting as opposed to the ‘carpet bombs’ of the Second World War or the Vietnam War.
For thirty years, we have tried to clarify and limit the collateral damage of a strike
“When we are in the air domain, in particular, we will take the necessary time to decide what type of weapon will be launched, by which plane, from what altitude, with what flight profile of the plane which will launch the “weapon”, underlines the specialist. This is a very detailed analysis called ‘targeting’.
How is the use of these weapons regulated by international law? Have modern technologies transformed the way bombing is carried out?
Juliane Roncoroni and the Point J team
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