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From: scott@swindle.Berkeley.EDU (Scott Silvey)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Persian Gulf Mavericks
Message-ID: <1991Mar4.205759.6091@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 4 Mar 91 20:57:59 GMT
References: <1991Feb26.012941.7447@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (william.b.thacker)
Organization: UC Berkeley Experimental Computing Facility
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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.  


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