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AGM-65 Maverick

Editor — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 03:16:53 +0000

Introduction
The AGM-65 Maverick is a tactical, air-to-surface guided missile designed for close air support, interdiction and defense suppression mission. It provides stand-off capability and high probability of strike against a wide range of tactical targets, including armor, air defenses, ships, transportation equipment and fuel storage facilities.

General Information and Features
The Maverick is a modular design weapon. A different combination of the guidance package and warhead can be attached to the rocket motor section to produce a different weapon. The Maverick has three different seekers and two different warheads. The solid-rocket motor propulsion section is common to all variants. The seeker options are electro-optical (EO) imaging, imaging infrared (IR) or a laser guidance package. The warhead is in the missile's center section. Either a 125-pound shaped-charge warhead or a 300-pound penetrator warhead can be used. A contact fuse in the nose fires the shaped-charge warhead. The penetrator uses a delayed-fuse, allowing the warhead to penetrate the target with its kinetic energy before firing. The latter is very effective against large, hard targets. The AGM-65 has a cylindrical body with long-chord delta wings and tail control surfaces mounted close to the trailing edge of the wing of the aircraft using it.

A-10, F-15E and F-16 aircraft carry Mavericks. As many as six Mavericks can be carried by an aircraft, usually in three round, underwing clusters, allowing the pilot to engage several targets on one mission. The missile also has "launch-and-leave" capability that enables a pilot to fire it and immediately take evasive action or attack another target as the missile guides itself to the target. Mavericks can be launched from high altitudes to tree-top level and can hit targets ranging from a distance of a few thousand feet to 13 nautical miles at medium altitude.

Maverick B models have an electro-optical television guidance system. After the protective dome cover is automatically removed from the nose of the missile and its video circuitry activated, the scene viewed by the guidance system appears on a cockpit television screen. The pilot selects the target, centers cross hairs on it, locks on, then launches the missile. The Maverick B also has a screen magnification capability that enables the pilot to identify and lock on smaller and more distant targets.

The Maverick D has an imaging infrared guidance system, operated much like that of the A and B models, except that infrared video overcomes the daylight-only, adverse weather limitations of the other system. The infrared Maverick D can track heat generated by a target and provide the pilot a pictorial display of the target during darkness and hazy or inclement weather.

The Maverick E model is the only version having the laser-guided seeker section. It uses the heavyweight penetrator warhead. The U.S. Marine Corps are the only users of this variant.

The Maverick F is a naval variant of the D/G model (IR) currently in use by the U.S. Navy. It also uses the 300-pound penetrator warhead.

The Maverick G model essentially has the same guidance system as the D, with some software modifications that track larger targets. The G model's major difference is its heavyweight penetrator warhead, while Maverick B and D models employ the shaped-charge warhead.

Maverick K models are currently in development. They were developed by taking a G model and replacing the IR guidance system with an electro-optical television guidance system.

Maverick K and H models are currently in production. The Maverick K model was developed by taking a G model and replacing the IR guidance system with an electro-optical television guidance system. The Maverick H model was developed by taking a B model and upgrading it to increase its capability.

History and Background Information
The Air Force accepted the first AGM-65A Maverick in August 1972. A total of 25,750 A and B Mavericks were purchased by the Air Force. Maverick A's have recently been phased out of the inventory. The Air Force is exploring the possibility of converting phased out A's and near obsolete B's and making an EO version to be named AGM-65H. The software in the H would be upgraded increasing its capability.

The Air Force took delivery of the first AGM-65D in October 1983, with initial operational capability in February 1986. Delivery of operational AGM-65G missiles took place in 1989.

More than 5,000 AGM-65 A/B/D/E/F/G's were employed during Operation Desert Storm, mainly attacking armored targets. Mavericks played a large part in the destruction of Iraq's significant military force.

General Characteristics

Primary Function: Air-to-surface guided missile
Contractors: Raytheon Systems Co.
Power Plant: Thiokol TX-481 solid-propellant rocket motor
Launch Weight: AGM-65B/H, 462 pounds (207.90 kilograms); AGM-65D, 485 pounds (218.25 kilograms); AGM-65E, 777 pounds (353.2 kilograms); AGM-65F, 804 pounds (365.5 kilograms); AGM-65G, 670 pounds (301.50 kilograms); AGM-65K, 793 pounds (360.45 kilograms)
Diameter: 1 foot (30.48 centimeters)
Wingspan: 2 feet, 4 inches (71.12 centimeters)
Range: Classified
Speed: Classified
Aircraft: Used aboard A-10, F-15E and F-16
Guidance System: AGM-65B/H/K, electro-optical television; AGM-65D/F/G, imaging infrared; AGM-65E, laser guided
Warheads: AGM-65B/D/H, 125 pounds (56.25 kilograms), cone shaped; AGM-65E/F/G/K, 300 pounds (135 kilograms) delayed-fuse penetrator, heavyweight
Unit Cost: $17,000 to $110,000 depending on the Maverick variant
Date Deployed: August 1972
Inventory: Classified

Point of Contact
Air Combat Command, Public Affairs Office; 115 Thompson St., Ste. 211; Langley AFB, Va. 23665-1987; DSN 574-5014 or (757) 764-5014; e-mail: acc.pai@langley.af.mil

AGM-65 Maverick is a post from: DefenceTalk | Defense & Military News - Forums - Pictures - Weapons

Intro to Air-to-surface missiles

Editor — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 23:31:13 +0000

Introduction
An air-to-surface missile (also, air-to-ground missile, ASM or AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft (bombers, attack aircraft, fighter aircraft or other kinds) and strike ground targets on land, at sea, or both. They are similar to guided glide bombs but to be considered a missile, they usually contain some form of propulsion system. The two most common propulsion systems for air-to-surface missiles are rocket motors and jet engines. These also tend to correspond to the range of the missiles - short and long, respectively. Some Soviet air-to-surface missiles are powered by ramjets, giving them both long range and high speed.

General Information
Guidance for air-to-surface missiles is typically via laser guidance, infrared guidance, optical guidance or via GPS signals. The type of guidance depends on the type of target. Ships, for example, may be detected via passive or active radar, while this wouldn't work very well against land targets which typically don't contain such a large mass of metal surrounded by empty space.

There is some cross-over between air-to-surface missiles and surface-to-surface missiles. For example, there was an air-launched version of the Tomahawk missile, although this has been superseded by the AGM-86 ALCM. Other missiles used in both roles include the Penguin anti-ship missile and AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile. Many air-to-surface missiles can be used against both ships and land targets, although some of them have to be modified to perform both roles effectively. For example, the Standoff Land Attack Missile is a land-attack version of the Harpoon.

One of the major advantages of air-to-surface missiles over other weapons available for aircraft to use to attack ground targets is the standoff distance they provide. This allows them to launch the weapons outside the most intense air defences around the target site. Most air-to-surface missiles are fire-and-forget in order to take most advantage of the standoff distance - they allow the launching platform to turn away after launch. Some missiles have enough range to be launched over the horizon. These missiles (typically either cruise or anti-ship missiles) need to be able to find and home in on the target autonomously.

Sub-categories of air-to-surface missiles include:

air-launched anti-tank guided missiles (typically launched from helicopters
air-launched cruise missiles
air-launched anti-ship missiles
anti-radiation missiles

Typically, the higher and faster the launching aircraft is flying, the further away the missile's target can be. For long range missiles this difference can be small, but short range missiles (like the AGM-65 Maverick) often dramatically increase in range when launched at altitude.

These have been examples of air-launched ballistic missiles, but they are rare. Sometimes air-to-surface missiles are divided into the categories of tactical and strategic. Typically this indicates conventional explosive or small nuclear warhead (tactical) and large nuclear warhead (strategic).

List of air-to-surface missiles

India
Brahmos

France
MBDA AS 30
MBDA Apache
MBDA Exocet

France/UK
Brimstone
Storm Shadow

Norway
Penguin missile

South Africa
Mokopa

UK
Blue Steel missile
Brimstone missile
Green Cheese missile
AGM-48 Skybolt
ALARM

USA
AGM-12 Bullpup
AGM-22
AGM-28 Hound Dog
AGM-45 Shrike
AGM-48 Skybolt
AGM-53 Condor
AGM-62 Walleye
AGM-63
AGM-64 Hornet
AGM-65 Maverick
AGM-69 SRAM
AGM-76 Falcon
AGM-78 Standard ARM
AGM-79 Blue Eye
AGM-80 Viper
AGM-83 Bulldog
AGM-84 Harpoon
AGM-86 CALCM
AGM-87 Focus
AGM-88 HARM
AGM-112
AGM-114 Hellfire
AGM-122 Sidearm
AGM-123 Skipper
AGM-124 Wasp
AGM-129 ACM
AGM-130
AGM-131 SRAM II
AGM-136 Tacit Rainbow
AGM-137 TSSAM
AGM-142 Have Nap
AGM-153
AGM-154 JSOW
AGM-158 JASSM
AGM-159 JASSM

USSR/Russia
AS-1 Kennel (KS-1 Kometa)
AS-2 Kipper (K-10S Yen)
AS-3 Kangaroo (H-20)
AS-4 Kitchen (H-22 Burya)
AS-5 Kelt (H-11/KSR-2)
AS-6 Kingfish" (H-26/KSR-5)
AS-7 Kerry (H-66, H-23 Grom)
AS-8 (9M114V Sturm-V)
AS-9 Kyle (H-28)
AS-10 Karen (H-25)
AS-11 Kilter (H-58 Izdeliye)
AS-12 Kegler (H-25MP, H-27PS)
AS-13 Kingbolt (H-59 Ovod)
AS-14 Kedge (H-29)
AS-15 Kent (H-55/H-65S Izdeliye)
AS-16 Kickback (H-15)
AS-17 Krypton (H-31)
AS-18 Kazoo (H-59M Ovod-M)
AS-19 Koala (P-750 Grom)
AS-X-19 Koala (3M25A Meteorit-A)
AS-20 Kayak (H-35/H-37 Uran)
AS-X-21 (Kh-90 Gela)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Intro to Air-to-surface missiles is a post from: DefenceTalk | Defense & Military News - Forums - Pictures - Weapons