@limburger – great question regarding laser guided bombs,  and on-board target designation rather than ground-based target designation.  The short answer is: it depends.

High level:  Laser guided bombs have a sensor in the nose, keyed to a predetermined IR Laser frequency and modulation.  A targeting laser is put on what you want the bomb to hit.  Being an IR laser, its invisible, cuts through darkness, smoke, etc.  You DO have to have a direct line of sight on the target, though (lasers are straight lines, obviously).  The laser bounces off the target and scatters all over, but the bomb can detect that reflection and use it as a guidance point.  This is often called “painting” the target.

The bomb is dropped, and can use inertial guidance to “glide” toward whatever is reflecting that laser.  As long as the laser remains fixed on the target, the bomb will find it, homing on the reflected laser energy.

The trick is, the source of the targeting laser and the source of the bomb don’t have to be the same.

Sure, they CAN be, but it defeats half the purpose of the LGB.  The examples in the wiki article you source are from Vietnam, where Paveway LGBs were used on large immobile targets like buildings and bridges.  One or more aircraft can “paint” the target, and the planes (probably F-105 Thunderchiefs in these cases) can drop the bombs, the bombs will ride the laser down to the target.  The issue is that the plane has to “see” the target with a direct LOS to paint the target itself.  AND the plane has to remain over the target, keeping the designator painted on the target, until the weapon strikes.

Much more common, and as we see on tactical battlefield targets like tanks, SAMs, or bunkers (i.e., the kinds of targets you actually go after in a wargame – smaller and mobile), it makes much more sense to have infantry on the ground paint the target.  They are small, concealed, and not firing (other than the laser) so are next to impossible to spot.  An invisible laser is bounced off the target, and bombs start raining down with pin-point accuracy.

This is the idea behind systems like the Pave Penny laser pod mounted on planes like the A-10.  These are laser receivers, not emitters.  They need a laser to track, usually from the  ground

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pave_Penny

You know what, a picture is worth a thousands words.  The  best movie scene I can think of that actually shows how these weapons work – fictional incident from Clear and Present Danger: