Some 400 yards up the mountain, an enemy fighter had the men locked in his machine gun’s firing zone. "They really don’t have anywhere to go and there’s no real ability to shoot back up at the mountains [because] they don’t really know where these attacks are coming from," said Johnson of the pinned-down forces on the ground. "All they know is that they can’t get out of that situation."
Metzger panned the Sniper pod’s infrared eye along the slope, following prompts from Bowers below. Peering at the screen, Metzger and Capt. Craig J. Steffek—Bone 21’s defensive weapons system officer—suddenly spotted the telltale glimmer of muzzle flashes, then a puff of smoke from a mortar. This was the first time the airmen spotted projectiles coming off the mountainside and the ridgeline into the friendly positions, said Metzger.
The WSOs determined the location’s coordinates and sent live imagery to Bowers. Following on his remotely operated video enhanced receiver, Bowers confirmed the ridgeline and the target.
Steffek selected a tight grouping, mixing 500-pound GBU-38s with larger 2,000-pound GBU-31s. Banking to the right to keep the Sniper pod on target, the WSOs confirmed detonation.
The effect was immediate. Pulling away from the target "everything had stopped, which is usually a good indication," said Capt. Andrew F. Long, mission copilot. With the bomb detonations echoing in the background, Steffek could hear the troops near Bowers’ radio cheering the blasts. "That’s a unique feeling—a reassurance for us the aircrew," he said.
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In the future, if a JDAM or SDB would be overkill, there will be smaller laser-guided missiles available.
http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2012/April%202012/0412lancer.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Attack_Guided_Rocket
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Precision_Kill_Weapon_System
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