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GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb

Two sailors in red jerseys fit a green 500 lb bomb under an F-14's wing
Ordnance crew complete the installation of a GBU-12 on an F-14 aboard USS John C. Stennis, 18 February 2002.Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Quinton Jackson.. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (accessed 2026-10-27).

Drafted — not technically validated

Record revision 1 · The 500 lb laser-guided bomb that was the F-111F's tank buster in Desert Storm and is now one of the most used guided weapons.

Real-world weapon as described in public sources. Weights and dimensions change with the fins, fuzes and variant fitted; the data plate names the variants its figures describe, and differences are noted beside the number they affect. The record describes the weapon; it is not a guide to employing it.

GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb · GBU-12

Type
500 lb class laser-guidedLGW GlossaryWeapons: Laser-guided weapon. A weapon that uses a seeker to detect laser energy reflected from a laser marked/designated target and through signal processing provides guidance commands to a control system, which guides the… bomb: a Mk 82 with a Paveway II guidance kit [1] [2]
Origin
United States
In service
Entered service in 1976 [1] [2]
Weight
800 lb (363 kg) in the FAS specification [2]
Dimensions
Length 129 in (3.28 m); diameter 11 in (279 mm) at the warhead, 18 in (457 mm) across the airfoil group [2]
Warhead or payload
Mk 82Mark 82 general-purpose bomb OrdnanceThe 500 lb low-drag bomb that is one of the most common air-dropped weapons in the world, with conical, Snakeye or ballute tails. blast/fragmentation, 192 lb of tritonal or PBXN-109 [2]
Guidance
Semi-active laser; bang-bang control that flies a sinusoidal path to the spot [1] [2]
Fuzing
FMU-81 tail fuzeFuze GlossaryWeapons: A device that causes the detonation of an explosive charge at the proper time after certain conditions are met. A bomb fuze is mechanical or electrical, and is classed by what sets it off (impact, mechanical time… [2]
Delivery
Released toward a target lit by a laser designator; a 'man-in-the-loop' weapon [2]
Range
About 8 NM (15 km) [1] [2]
Carried by
  • US Air Force: A-10A-10 Thunderbolt II AircraftThe Warthog: a straight-wing, armoured close air support jet built around the 30 mm GAU-8 cannon., B-52, F-111, F-117, F-15EF-15E Strike Eagle AircraftThe two-seat, long-range, all-weather strike derivative of the Eagle., F-16F-16 Fighting Falcon AircraftA single-engine multirole fighter: fly-by-wire, 9 g, and the US Air Force's main strike and SEAD aircraft., B-1B, F-35 [1] [2]
  • US Navy and Marine Corps: A-6, A-7, F-14F-14 Tomcat AircraftThe Navy's swing-wing fleet defence fighter: two crew, AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix., F/A-18C/DF/A-18 Hornet AircraftA carrier-capable fighter and attack aircraft that one pilot can switch between roles on the same sortie. [2]
  • Pakistan Air Force and other air forces [3]
Variants
  • GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II: dual-mode GPS and laser version, rushed to the F-35 in 2017 to strike moving targets [3]

The small laser bomb

The GBU-12 is a 500 lb Mk 82Mark 82 general-purpose bomb OrdnanceThe 500 lb low-drag bomb that is one of the most common air-dropped weapons in the world, with conical, Snakeye or ballute tails. with a nose-mounted laser seeker and guidance fins added. [1] Its roots are in the Vietnam War, when the Air Force wanted a lighter, more manoeuvrable laser-guided bombLGW GlossaryWeapons: Laser-guided weapon. A weapon that uses a seeker to detect laser energy reflected from a laser marked/designated target and through signal processing provides guidance commands to a control system, which guides the… able to hit moving targets on the Ho Chi Minh trail. [1] It entered service in 1976, and “Paveway II” names the guidance kit, not the bomb. [1]

Bang-bang guidance

The Paveway II steers with “bang-bang” guidance: when the seeker sees that a correction is needed, the fins deflect fully until the bomb overcorrects, then deflect back the other way, so the bomb flies a sinusoidal path to the spot. It is less efficient, but cheaper and simpler. [1] The FAS gives the GBU-12 a range of 8 NM and a circular error probable of 9 m. [2]

Tank buster

The GBU-12 was the F-111F’s tank-busting weapon of choice in Desert Storm: of the 4,493 dropped, over half came from F-111Fs, the rest from F-15EsF-15E Strike Eagle AircraftThe two-seat, long-range, all-weather strike derivative of the Eagle. and A-6s, mostly against fixed armour, and the Air Force says it hit 88 per cent of its targets. [2] Wikipedia credits the F-111s with 920 Iraqi tanks and armoured personnel carriers destroyed with it. [1] It is among the most commonly used guided munitions and can be dropped by a very wide range of aircraft. [1]

Sources

  1. GBU-12 Paveway II. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-12_Paveway_II (accessed 2026-10-27).
  2. Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II. Federation of American Scientists, Military Analysis Network, 19 February 1998. https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/smart/gbu-12.htm (accessed 2026-10-27).
  3. Paveway. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paveway (accessed 2026-10-27).

Wikipedia articles are secondary sources and can change; they are cited with the date they were read. NAVEDTRA training manuals and budget justification exhibits are official US publications, but each describes the weapons in service when it was written.