Strafing

A-10 Thunderbolt-II 30mm GAU-8 cannon conducting a strafing run against suspected Taliban machine-gun crew, footage captured by overhead U.S military-operated reconnaissance drone, Afghanistan.
A German vehicle column destroyed by ground-attack aircraft close to Arnhem, 23 September 1944

Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons.[1] Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such as fast boats, using smaller-caliber weapons and targeting stationary or slowly-moving targets.[citation needed]

  1. ^ "Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms 8 November" (PDF). Joint Publication 1-02. U.S. Department of Defense. 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2011. strafing — The delivery of automatic weapons fire by aircraft on ground targets.