Swellow's two long, narrow tails and remarkably sharp eyesight have given them perfect accuracy, an ability which humans have long been eager to exploit. Early air forces were often composed of Swellow, who dropped Voltorb out of the sky at enemy troop formations or the weak points of castles; it is for this reason that castles in Hoenn are often said to resemble blockhouses more than the pagodas of neighboring lands.
However, Swellow's perfect accuracy was long held to be a figure of speech; they were a common pokemon, not a mythic hero, and surely their accuracy had some limit. It was only after shooting numerous probes through the sea of stars and missing that, in desparation, the Mossdeep Space Center's head decided to try training a flock of Swellow to aim space probes. Although the heat generated by the rocket launch singed their wings badly and knocked out half of them, they launched the first space probe to successfully photograph the Moon. (Improvements in pokemon space suits have made these launches much safer in more recent years.) Probes aimed by Swellow from Mossdeep have photographed most of the solar system, but also caught the attention of Deoxys, who attacked the Space Center about a decade ago to protect the secrets of outer space. Only the brave sacrifices and military skill of the Swellow aiming corps, along with some well-improvised space suits, saved astronomy in Hoenn from absolute ruin.
It is the salvation of the sport of pokemon battle that Swellow are incapable of learning techniques such as Sheer Cold or Guillotine which knock out pokemon instantly, for if they could, no other pokemon would be able to fight back. Instead, despite their supreme speed and accuracy, these glass cannons aim for the stars.