Related. Pentagon officials told reporters that gravity bombs had also been used. This is to differentiate them from ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and laser-guided, munition called since 1972 smart bombs, which have homing devices to direct them to the target.
A gravity bomb is an old-fashioned bomb, pulled to the Earth by gravity, but nobody in the military likes to say any equipment is old-fashioned, hence the retronym. For a brief period, bombs that were not smarten which homing devices were called dumb bombs which is not as pejorative as "old-fashioned" to the military mind, but dumb, meaning "stupid," is a slur of a handicap meaning "unable to speak," and was accordingly dropped from the nomenclature. Asked if any category exists between smart and dumb bombs. Major Richard Ziegler, an Air Force spokesman , replies:"I know of no
medium-intelligence weapons."