soft ordnance

noun

Napalm or cluster bombs (for use against soft targets), as opposed to high explosives (for hardened targets).

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Meanings

nounsoft ordnance (uncountable)
  1. USeuphemisticuncountablegovernmentNapalm or cluster bombs (for use against soft targets), as opposed to high explosives (for hardened targets).

    Some of the planes were loaded with "soft" ordnance—cluster bombs or napalm—others with "hard" ordnance such as high explosives. The planes were scrambled according to what the troops on the ground called for. If enemy soldiers were in the open, soft ordnance was on the menu; […]

    2000 December 31, Dale Andradé, America's Last Vietnam Battle: Halting Hanoi's 1972 Easter Offensive, University Press of Kansas, →ISBN, page 364
Cite this entry
APA

soft ordnance. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/soft%20ordnance

MLA

“soft ordnance.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/soft%20ordnance. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “soft ordnance,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/soft%20ordnance.

Source: soft ordnance on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.