As Israeli jets devastate Gaza, air force photos show fighter aircraft armed with what look like unguided ‘dumb’ bombs

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Israeli fighter aircraft have been bombing the Gaza Strip, often with precision-guided weapons such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions, but photos and videos posted by the Israeli Air Force suggest it’s also using less accurate, unguided munitions, military analysts told Insider.

Unguided bombs have their uses, but in a densely packed area such as Gaza, there’s potential for damage outside a target area and civilian casualties. 

Last week, the Israeli Air Force posted photos on X, the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter, appearing to show a bomb being loaded onto an aircraft and a fighter jet already armed. In both of the photos, the munitions appeared to be unguided.

A photo appearing to show Israeli Air Force personnel “arming and continuing the series of attacks,” Thursday’s X post said. Israeli Air Force An Israeli Air Force aircraft outfitted with bombs. The photo appeared as part of a Thursday post on X. Israeli Air Force

The text accompanying the photos in the posts said, “Arming and continuing the series of attacks” and “Not stopping for a moment,” respectively, indicating the aircraft were involved in the ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza, a destructive response to the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks that caught Israel by surprise on October 7.

An Israeli Air Force video posted Monday also seemed to show fighter jets armed with unguided bombs ahead of footage of airstrikes.

Michael Bohnert, an engineer and analyst at the Rand Corporation, said that in the images, there was no visible GPS-guided JDAM kit or laser-guided Paveway kit. “The bomb in this picture is unguided and likely highly inaccurate,” he said. 

One open-source information account said the photos showed M117 unguided bombs on F-16C fighter jets, adding that this suggested “the Israeli Air Force may be dipping into stocks of older, less accurate unguided munitions.” 

Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow for airpower and military technology at the Royal United Services Institute think tank who’s also a professor at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy, also identified the bomb as a 750-lb M117 dumb bomb. 

“The M117 dates from the Korean War era,” Bronk told Insider, and has “a pretty distinctive design that’s very similar to the sort of general purpose iron bombs used by the US Army Air Force in World War II.” 

The bombs pictured boasted a different design from those used in the Vietnam War era, Bronk added, when “most iron bombs went to much slicker designs because of the move to faster jet aircraft and particularly supersonic aircraft.” The Mark 81, 82, and 83, for instance, are longer and slenderer to reduce drag. 

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment to Insider when asked about the photos and whether unguided munitions were being used in Gaza. 

The unguided munitions in the photos look noticeably different from those equipped with JDAM kits, which turn unguided munitions into precision weapons. These have been seen in some other Israeli Air Force photos.

Israeli Air Force personnel appearing to work with a JDAM in a photo from a post on X last week. Israeli Air Force

Striking targets in Gaza with unguided munitions, as the Israeli Air Force posts indicate is being done, increases the likelihood that bombing operations will cause massive damage to areas outside the target zone, potentially killing civilians or damaging unrelated buildings and infrastructure.

“Dumb” bombs don’t contain an internal guidance system or have one equipped externally, such as bombs equipped with JDAMs, and they’ll generally follow the trajectory at which they were dropped, though weather, wind, angle, and other environmental factors may play a role in where the bomb actually lands. The abilities of the pilot and the aircraft play a role as well, for better or worse.

Bronk said unguided bombs would normally be used in a more open area where targets are more dispersed, and the use wasn’t indiscriminate, “but if you’re using them against targets in a built-up area, then it is almost by definition indiscriminate, particularly when using this older style of unguided bomb with a much higher drag design.”

A higher drag means it is harder to drop the bomb on-target, even using a modern fighter jet’s Constantly Computed Impact Point delivery mode, which uses software to provide a rough idea of where the bomb will land and projects that spot onto the pilot’s display.

Smoke rising after bombing of Israeli forces with warplanes earlier in October. Another munition can be seen falling toward a target. Momen Faiz/NurPhoto via Getty Images

“Modern fighter jets can be quite accurate with unguided munitions if the conditions are right,” Bronk said, “but you’re still talking about significantly less precise delivery than when using a JDAM or Paveway.”

And in airstrikes in an urban environment, such as Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, precision is important for preventing civilian casualties.

The “low-cost guidance kit,” the manufacturer Boeing says of the JDAM, “converts existing free-fall bombs into accurately guided smart weapons,” adding that it had a greater than 95% system reliability during testing and a less than 1.7-meter Circular Error Probable accuracy, meaning a munition equipped with a JDAM is highly likely to hit its intended target rather than shift outside the area. 

As Israel did during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021, its forces have been using JDAMs in its current nonstop strikes on Gaza. Early last week, the country urgently requested more JDAMs, as well as interceptors for their short-range aerial-defense system Iron Dome, from the US. In addition to those showing unguided munitions, the Israeli Air Force has also posted photos and videos of JDAMs being employed on fighter jets, indicating they are in use. The Israeli military, however, declined to comment on that.

An Israeli aircraft carrying a JDAM-equipped munition in a photo from a Wednesday post on X. Israeli Air Force

Though Israeli Air Force photos and videos regularly showed JDAMs early in the bombing campaign, unguided bombs started appearing more often in later images, leading some observers to speculate about possible supply issues as Israel burns through its stockpiles while hammering Gaza. 

Last Thursday, the Israeli Air Force released a video of rows of munitions and guidance kits during the assembly process, but even though the footage showed a substantial supply, the rate of expenditure could be stressing Israel’s stockpiles.

The country’s air force said Thursday it had dropped about 6,000 bombs on Gaza since the airstrikes began on October 7. In just six days, the Israelis dropped more bombs than the US-led coalition did in any single month of the campaign against ISIS, even at its peak.

Bronk said Israel could be running low on JDAMs and potentially waiting on additional US aid or saving what it has for another fight, possibly against Hezbollah. Commenting on the apparent use of unguided munitions, he said, “They’re probably choosing to use these to conserve other munitions rather than because they’re particularly appropriate.”

Fire and smoke rising above buildings in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike on Friday as raging battles between Israel and the Hamas movement continued for the sixth consecutive day. MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images

Part of the challenge for the Israeli Air Force’s air campaign is that Gaza is a densely populated area. The urban environment makes bombing inherently difficult. A 1,000- or 2,000-pound bomb, even if it’s precise, can do tremendous damage to more than just the intended target in this kind of environment, putting civilians and infrastructure at risk.

Photos and videos coming from Gaza, including those posted by the Israeli Air Force, show absolutely obliterated streets from the strip, with rows of buildings destroyed by airstrikes. 

The attacks show little sign of slowing down, especially ahead of a likely imminent ground offensive in Gaza. “We started the offensive from the air; later on, we will also come from the ground,” the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, told soldiers near the Gaza border last Tuesday. “We’ve been controlling the area since day two, and we are on the offensive. It will only intensify.”

As of Friday, the IDF said its air assault had struck more than 2,600 Hamas targets in response to deadly terror attacks over the weekend that it said killed at least 1,300 Israelis and wounded thousands more. Authorities say the strikes on the Gaza Strip have, in turn, killed at least 2,600 Palestinians and injured more than 9,500 other people.