Direct proof of use
United States Central Command Air Forces' April 30, 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom air-campaign summary listed thousands of laser-guided bomb expenditures, including GBU-10, GBU-12, GBU-16, GBU-24, GBU-27, and GBU-28 rounds. Human Rights Watch reproduced the same munition categories in its 2003 review of the air war, identifying the listed GBU-10, GBU-12, and GBU-16 weapons as Paveway II laser-guided bombs and the GBU-24 and GBU-27 as Paveway III laser-guided bombs.
Raytheon, the Paveway manufacturer, separately described Paveway as the most widely used precision munition in Operation Iraqi Freedom and reported more than 8,700 Paveway bombs dropped. A 2004 Raytheon release quoted the Air Force Paveway II program manager saying approximately 10,000 laser-guided bombs were used in Operation Iraqi Freedom, accounting for about half of all air-launched precision-guided munitions.
Sources: USCENTAF Operation Iraqi Freedom By The Numbers, Human Rights Watch Off Target Appendix, Raytheon Paveway Production Contract, Raytheon 250000th Paveway Delivery
Campaign employment
The official USCENTAF figures show the GBU-12 as the dominant listed Paveway round in the opening air campaign, with 7,114 expended between the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the April 30, 2003 reporting date. Other listed Paveway-family expenditures included 1,233 GBU-16s, 236 GBU-10s, 23 GBU-24s, 11 GBU-27s, one GBU-28, and 98 EGBU-27 laser/GPS-guided penetrators.
Australian Aviation's June 2003 technical review described laser-guided bombs as central to battlefield interdiction and close-air-support work in rural and urban environments. It identified Raytheon's Paveway II and III family as the backbone of close support and battlefield interdiction work and noted that the GBU-10 and GBU-12 baseline variants were widely used.
Sources: USCENTAF Operation Iraqi Freedom By The Numbers, Air Power Australia Iraqi Freedom Weapons
Urban and battlefield roles
Action on Armed Violence, citing USCENTAF's April 2003 count, described the GBU-12 Paveway II as the most commonly dropped bomb during the opening month of the Iraq conflict and placed it within coalition air strikes around Basra. The same report cited press accounts of two U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles using laser-guided munitions in a March 29 strike on a building where suspected paramilitary members were meeting near Basra.
The record supports Paveway use as a coalition air-delivered precision weapon for point targets, close support, battlefield interdiction, and selected strategic strikes. The cited sources document weapon categories and campaign roles, but they do not identify a complete strike-by-strike inventory for every Paveway bomb dropped in Iraq.
Sources: AOAV Tale of Two Cities, Air Power Australia Iraqi Freedom Weapons
