One in three?
 

It's stated that one in three Saudi air strikes in Yemen destroy collateral targets. Is this figure plausible? Having watched Russian Airforce video of unguided bombs tumbling onto residential areas in Syria, one in three looks good by comparison.

Don't worry, in GW2 coalition forces at times managed to hit another country with 'precision' munitions.

Not that they didn't mean to..

WHAT is a collateral target?

Indeed... There is no such thing, by definition something is either a target, or it isn't...

-RP

Err, is that what's called 'a miss'?

There is collateral damage - which happens when you hit the right target. The acceptable level being a legal question and driving the need for smaller PGMs.

Then there is missing the right target; which whilst always being deplorable, may or not be a crime depending on the care taken and the cause - in the fog of war accidents happen.

Then of course there is hitting the right target and claiming it was the wrong one for political reasons. A certain Chinese embassy comes to mind......

OK, proone, rhino etc, since we're more interested in semantics than answering the question, how DO you describe the schools, shops and homes blown to bits in Yemen (and lots of other places)?

The same as in all wars.

Carthago Delenda Est!

Carthage wasn't destroyed accidentally

Dreadful, obviously. But, without boots on the ground in significant numbers, all you really have left is airstrikes and when the filth that you're trying to eliminate hides among the civilian populace, unfortunately civilians will be killed, that's not an attempt to justify the 'collateral damage', it's just the way it is.
PGM's are also only as good as the targetting data (notwithstanding the odd 'rogue' weapon), and if that's duff, well...

-RP

A tribute to the (alleged) professionalism of the Saudi Air Force, and to their permissive RoE? I don't know their RoE, I don't know how good their FAC's are, but I have a few opinions on the quality of their fighting forces. Nice hardware, but it ends about there ...