AGM-65 Maverick

Maverick

Main Points.

  • Highly successful modular air-to-surface weapon in active use since 1972 through the present.
  • Seeker modules include Air Force TV-, Air Force and Navy IIR-, Marine Corps Laser-, Air Force CCD-guided versions
  • Navy anti-ship version has larger penetrating warhead.

The AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-surface tactical missile designed for close air support, interdiction, and defense suppression. It is effective against a wide range of targets, including armor, air defenses, ships, ground transportation, and fuel storage facilities. The U.S. Navy, Air Force, Marines and several foreign countries use versions of Maverick. Maverick missiles first entered the service of the Air Force in 1972 and versions are still in use today in all three services.

The Maverick missile is an excellent example of a modular-design weapon. A different combination of the guidance package and the warhead can be attached to the rocket motor section to produce a different weapon. Two early Air Force versions of the guidance packages were TV-guided.  However, since they were only useful during daylight hours, later versions for the Air Force had imaging infrared seekers (IIR), which doubled the lock-on range of the TV guided versions and could be used at night and in bad weather.  The Navy developed an Infrared Imaging (IIR) seeker as well, and installed a larger penetrating warhead (300-lbs verses 125-lbs for the Air Force version) primarily for anti-ship purposes. This version also had a safe-and-arm device that made it safer to use aboard ships.  For the Marines a laser-guided version was developed, which is the AGM-65E model shown here.

            Mavericks were used extensively in the 1991 Operation Desert Storm. The Air Force dropped more than 5,000 of the weapons, mainly by the A-10 Warthog aircraft. With a reported hit-rate of 80%-90% the missiles were responsible for destruction of a large part of the Iraqi army targets. The Marines also dropped a few laser-guided versions with a reported hit-rate of about 60%. The Imaging Infrared seekers had some problems during Desert Storm because of thermal clutter in the excessive heat of the desert. Because of this problem the Air Force later developed a new TV-guided version with a Charged-Couple Device (CCD) seeker.  These will replace the TV and IIR seekers of earlier versions, and have also replaced the IIR seeker the Navy uses.