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[madman1960Participant 362xp 1]

Here are the passages from Horse Soldiers where he describes how and why targeting lasers can be off.

Boyle agreed to drop the bombs. They called in a JDAM, arriving at the grid coordinates by plotting with their range finders. The bomb missed by at least a half mile. Dean and Boyle agreed they’d be more successful using lasers. Dean was embarrassed.

He radioed back to the team at Atta’s and asked that someone bring forward the SOFLAM, which was the laser designator.

Using the laser, Boyle painted the bunker they had missed earlier and the bomb inexplicably flew off target and hit another bunk nearby by mistake.

Dean wanted badly to impress Atta and he felt nothing but frustration. At dusk, though, he was able to figure out the source of their targeting problem—he was relieved to learn it was not his fault.

As the drafts from the valley floor circulated during the day, supercharged by the sun’s increasing heat, the air had thickened to a brown haze. It was this haze that was actually bending the laser, so that the invisible beam of light was not aimed where Boyle pointed it.