The effect of the induced spatial incoherence method of laser beam smoothing on the convective Raman instability in an underdense inhomogeneous plasma has been studied. It is found that only for bandwidths comparable to, or greater than, the time‐averaged homogeneous growth rate, is there significant smoothing effect resulting in a reduction of the backscattered radiation. However, for narrow bandwidths the backscattered radiation computed in the presence of hot spots created by the echelons, turns out to be significantly less than the levels observed in the Naval Research Laboratory experiments. We argue that a combination of three‐dimensional effects and filamentation may account for the observed level of enhanced scattering.