Collateral damage is any incidental and undesired death, injury or other damage inflicted, especially on civilians, as the result of an activity. Originally coined to describe military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts to refer to any unwanted fallout from an action.
Ruins from the Allied accidental bombing of the Bezuidenhout in 1945 included the deaths of more than 500 Dutch civilians.
Tokyo after the massive firebombing attack on the night of 9–10 March 1945, the single most destructive raid in military aviation history. The Tokyo firebombing killed around 100,000 civilians, but the city's industrial productivity—the primary target of the bombing—was cut in half.
Precision-guided munition
A precision-guided munition (PGM), also called a smart weapon, smart munition, or smart bomb, is a guided munition intended to hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against intended targets. During the Persian Gulf War guided munitions accounted for only 9% of weapons fired, but accounted for 75% of all successful hits. Despite guided weapons generally being used on more difficult targets, they were still 35 times more likely to destroy their targets per weapon dropped.
A laser-guided GBU-24 (BLU-109 warhead variant) strikes its target
BOLT-117, the world's first laser-guided bomb
Diagram showing the operation of a laser-guided ammunition round. From a CIA report, 1986.
A F-22 releases a JDAM from its center internal bay while flying at supersonic speed
