jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) (02/26/91)
From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Excerpted from the March issue of the IEEE newsletter "The Institute:"
While the Pentagon has released some videos displaying
surgical accuracy of this kind ["feet not meters"], the
overall performance of the so-called smart bombs, such
as the AGM-65B Maverick missile, will not be known for
some time. The Pentagon termed a mission successful if
an aircraft dropped ordnance at the site and returned
to base. A report in the January issue of the U.S.
Naval Institute Proceedings says of the Mavericks:
"Their performance in combat could be a big 'if.' Opera-
tional tests in the mid-1980s showed that the pilots
were able to get a 'lock' on their targets in only 6
percent of their firing passes.
The article, a roundup of Gulf War electrotechnology news, concludes with:
A special report on military technology in the Gulf will
appear in a future issue of IEEE Spectrum [their general-
science magazine]. Anyone with comments or observations
should write to John A. Adam, IEEE Spectrum, 15 Fifteenth
Street S.E., Washington, DC 20003.
--Joe
"Just another personal opinon from the People's Republic of Berkeley"scott@swindle.Berkeley.EDU (Scott Silvey) (03/05/91)
From: scott@swindle.Berkeley.EDU (Scott Silvey) jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) writes: |> to base. A report in the January issue of the U.S. |> Naval Institute Proceedings says of the Mavericks: |> "Their performance in combat could be a big 'if.' Opera- |> tional tests in the mid-1980s showed that the pilots |> were able to get a 'lock' on their targets in only 6 |> percent of their firing passes. Again, according to CNN (I've been watching a lot of that lately), one reporter said that the A10 pilots were having a hard time getting them to work well against tanks dug into berms. The solution they came up with was to use very cheap 500lb PAVEWAY's. Those worked quite well apparently. Also, I read an account of an F16 pilot at Air Force Fighter Weapons School who made a practice run with a Maverick ... he got his lock and then fired. However, when he reviewed the gun-camera film, he noticed that just before he pickled the trigger, the Maverick lost it's lock (he hadn't noticed at the time). Despite that, the instructers still gave him the "Effective" grade for that run ... this puzzled him. I thought that was curious too. Alternately, I believe I read in Janes that the Maverick had an 80% or so success rate for the Isrealis (I guess that was in Lebanon). This was apparently the only battlefield testing for the Maverick until recently. I believe Janes was quoting the manufacturer ... Also, I heard an interview of the two A10 drivers who chalked up 23 tank kills in a single day... they had nothing but praise for the Mavericks of course! One of them DID emphasize though that the tanks were on the move and that their engines were nicely hot. /-----------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Scott Silvey | Message actually given by rn: | | scott@xcf.berkeley.edu | | | | " ****** 33993 unread articles in comp.windows.x, | | Flames to /dev/null | read now? [ynq] " | \-----------------------------------------------------------------------------/