Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: nak%archie@att.att.com (Neil A Kirby)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: U.S. Ground Vulnerablity
Summary: Maverick missiles: until the fires start...
Message-ID: <1990Sep13.012845.17761@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 13 Sep 90 01:28:45 GMT
References: <1990Sep2.061204.3795@cbnews.att.com> <1990Sep12.014955.29266@cbnews.att.com>
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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From: nak%archie@att.att.com (Neil A Kirby)
> From: att!utzoo!henry
>>From: sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney)
>>>Actually, it's pretty easy to explain:  an aircraft against a sky background
>>>is a lot easier for a dumb little missile to see and follow than a tank
>>>against complex ground clutter.  
>>
>>Maverick missiles pick things out of ground clutter quite nicely, using either
>>IR (prefered) or TV.
> 
> Sure they work nicely, for suitable values of "nicely". :-)  Rumor hath
> it that when you test them in realistic conditions, they don't work nearly
> as well as the glossy brochures say.

It's more than rumor, it was (and might still be)  substantiated facts.
When Mavericks were to be acceptance tested in IR mode, one of the testers
went out and lit about a dozen $1.99 charcoal grills in the testing zone.
This was unbeknownst to everybody else at the time, including the brass.
The grills were to simulate battlefield fires from dead tanks and truck,
and were also to simulate cheap protective measures.  

Results: Alot of "earthy" language from pilots and brass, and a number of
trashed out two dollar grills.  Very few tanks or trucks got hit.

To get fire and forget anti tank, the missile should probably be
multi-source imaging (such as IR, visible, and millimeter wave radar) but as
far as I know we aren't there yet.

> The question is not whether it will show up, but whether it will stand out
> from clutter.  All-aspect SAMs and AAMs are specced to work against a sky
> background with a clear view of the nice big exhaust plume from a jet.
> (Seeing the plume rather than the hot metal is what makes them all-aspect.)
> Spotting the IR-suppressed plume from a tank diesel isn't so simple,
> especially when it's at the back and you're at the front.

This is also a possible saving grace for A10, Cobra, and Apache pilots:  If
you are down there near all of the burning metal, it's harder for an
overhead enemy fighter to get a clean frontal shot using IR missiles.  The
question is "how much harder?"

Neil Kirby
...att!archie!nak