But there are also fleeting targets of opportunity, like the Libyan warship on Sunday, as well as tanks, artillery or pickup trucks outfitted with heavy guns that are spotted in hiding places, vetted swiftly and hunted down, often in minutes.
Many people find the computer-games aspect of what the Pentagon likes to call "Unmanned Aerial Systems" creepy, but drones are much better than manned aircraft at hunting fleeting targets.
And as the analysts quickly pass on the latest data from drones and other spy planes, they are creating the fluid connections needed to hunt small groups of fighters and other fleeting targets, military officials say.
Having already proved itself in Kosovo as a cheap, dispensable eye-in-the-sky, the Predator came into its own in Afghanistan by watching elusive or "fleeting" targets and showing that it could be used as a strike weapon, delivering Hellfire missiles.
These developments underscored how the fluid nature of the modern battlefield, one without clearly defined front lines and full of fleeting targets, required the Pentagon's most specialized attack plane, and its pilots and crews, to make day-by-day and even minute-by-minute adjustments.
Fighting such a war would require very different skills and equipment, with the onus very much on intelligence gathering and the ability to strike fleeting targets rapidly.
They had difficulty picking out enemies, which were small or fleeting targets because of their distance or speed, among a "haze of microscopic heads-up labels".
America has also been musing about putting conventional warheads on some of its fastest-flying strategic missiles to achieve what is known as "prompt global strike" against otherwise fleeting terrorist targets.
Air Force officials are seeking to speed the process of providing fresh intelligence on fleeting terrorist targets to bomber pilots or commandos on the ground, said a retired senior military officer.
In Jumper's words, the military was dealing with, "fleeting, perishable targets that don't require a big warhead that we can just go ahead and take care of".
