Weapon precision cannot improve the adequacy of target identification.

Evidence

The fact that your weapon enables you to destroy precisely whomever you wish does not mean that you are more capable of making out who is and who is not a legitimate target. The precision of the strike has no bearing on the pertinence of the targeting in the first place. That would be tantamount to saying that the guillotine, because of the precision of its blade—which, it is true, separates the head from the trunk with remarkable precision—makes it thereby better able to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 474 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

A laser-guided strike is extremely precise in terms of firing accuracy: the ballistic device explodes at the exact spot designated. But that does not mean that its impact is necessarily reduced. Everything depends on the “kill radius” of the projectile, that is to say the perimeter of the explosion. A strike may be completely precise in the first sense but not in the least precise in the second sense. There is a crucial difference between hitting the target and hitting only the target. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 469 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Drones are less precise than rifles and grenades at discriminating targets.; Proponents conflate firing accuracy with impact extent and target identification; Firing accuracy does not reduce a strike’s impact radius — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 469 (+5 more)

Related

• Proponents conflate firing accuracy with impact extent and target identification (similarity 0.93)
• Precision of a strike says nothing about target discrimination (similarity 0.92)
• Drones are less precise than rifles and grenades at discriminating targets. (similarity 0.90)
• Firing accuracy does not reduce a strike’s impact radius (similarity 0.90)
• Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians (similarity 0.84)
• The drone should be judged against equivalent tactical weapons, not older bombers (similarity 0.83)
• Drone precision claims will fail in actual battle conditions (similarity 0.82)
• Drones produce constant terror because targets never know when they are tracked. (similarity 0.80)
• Drone missiles have larger lethal radii than conventional infantry weapons (similarity 0.80)
• Drones are nondiscriminatory because excluding combat erases the combatant-noncombatant distinction. (similarity 0.79)
• Drones multiplied ballistic reach by adding remote-control distance to weapon range (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Precision of a strike says nothing about target discrimination #corroborates (0.95) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 474
• Proponents conflate firing accuracy with impact extent and target identification #corroborates (0.85)
• Firing accuracy does not reduce a strike’s impact radius #corroborates (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 469
• Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians #expands (0.60)
• Claimed precision paradoxically expands global killing rather than limiting it #expands (0.60)