Direct proof of use
The GBU-10 Paveway II is directly documented in the 1990 Gulf War through the U.S. Government Accountability Office's postwar evaluation of the Operation Desert Storm air campaign. GAO's strike-data analysis identifies GBU-10 and GBU-12 laser-guided bombs in F-111F and F-117 attacks, including a 22-target comparison where those aircraft dropped the same munition types against common targets.
The same GAO review separately lists the F-117's Desert Storm laser-guided-bomb mix as GBU-10, GBU-12, and GBU-27, and reports 456 F-117 strikes with 517 laser-guided bombs dropped in a 49-target comparison set. For F-111F and F-117 strikes on 22 common targets using GBU-10 or GBU-12 bombs, GAO records 285 bombs dropped by F-111Fs and 271 by F-117s.
Sources: GAO Desert Storm Air Campaign, Air & Space Forces Paveway II
Campaign chronology
Operation Desert Storm's air campaign began on January 17, 1991 and ran until the February 28, 1991 ceasefire. Within that campaign, GAO places the GBU-10 in the laser-guided-bomb inventory used by U.S. strike aircraft against Iraqi fixed targets.
GAO's most specific public comparisons do not provide a complete GBU-10 sortie-by-sortie ledger. They do show the weapon appearing in grouped GBU-10 and GBU-12 strike results for F-111F and F-117 aircraft, and in the F-117 munition set alongside GBU-27s against strategic targets such as airfields, bridges, military industrial bases, and nuclear, biological, and chemical facilities.
Sources: GAO Desert Storm Air Campaign
Operational role
The sourced record places the GBU-10 on the coalition side of the 1990 Gulf War, in U.S. air operations. Its documented role was air-delivered precision strike: a 2,000-pound-class semi-active laser-guided bomb used against fixed targets where aircraft could designate or receive laser designation.
GAO's bridge and common-target comparisons show the GBU-10 appearing in the same precision-strike environment as other Desert Storm laser-guided bombs. The evidence supports use for attacks on Iraqi bridge, airfield, military-industrial, and hardened or strategic target categories, while the public GAO tables usually group GBU-10 and GBU-12 results rather than assigning every target outcome to one specific bomb model.
Sources: GAO Desert Storm Air Campaign, Naval Air Systems Command Direct Attack Weapons, Air & Space Forces Paveway II
