Military warfare is a subject that flies by my head on most occasions. I don’t know much about it, and I’m not well-versed in the world of tactical operations. But there is something to be said about a recent report that revealed the U.S. Air Force using B52 bombers, F-16 fighter jets, and drones to literally reshape the terrain in Afghanistan with the goal of doing away with secret mountain passes that can be used by militants and extremists.

According to Lara Seligman of Aviation Week, the US military has been using these B-52s to perform what’s described as “terrain denial” missions over Afghanistan. That’s interesting in it of itself because these missions come with the involvement of 500-pound class Mk 82 “dumb bombs” that are being dropped to reshape the country’s terrain. Shortly after, a spokesperson from the US Air Forces Central Command clarified that the mission was more complex than just B52’s dropping payloads on unsuspecting land. It also involves the use of manned and unmanned (drones) aircrafts that are loaded with guided and unguided munitions.

The spokesperson added that these missions are part of a coordinated effort to destroy specific terrain features that could help insurgents. Between narrow mountainous paths, rock-topped ridgelines, and even buildings and other man-made structures, the missions are leaving little to chance by destroying these landscapes to help neutralize the enemies’ perceived advantages.

As costly as these missions have been, they’re not new in the annals of the U.S. military. It’s been done before, going all the way back to World War II, the Vietnam War, and even Desert Storm. It’s an interesting strategy that looks to have yielded positive results for the military, which is presumably one of the reasons why it’s doing it again. Let’ just hope that no civilians have gotten hurt in the course of these missions.