Raytheon to Supply AGM-65 Maverick Missiles to Korea, Taiwan

AGM-65D Fired From F-16(click to view full) Raytheon received a $77.4 million foreign military sales contract to produce 266 AGM-65D and AGM-65G2 infrared-guided Maverick air-to-surface all up rounds (AURs) missiles and 1 ground control system for the governments of Korea and Taiwan. AURs are missiles in storage containers that contain appropriate electronics and can be moved from storage to loading as is. AGM-65 rose to prominence during Desert Storm, when many of TV’s missile-eye views of air strikes came from Mavericks. The missile is produced in 3 versions: TV-guided, imaging infrared (IIR) guided, and laser-guided. “Raytheon Restarts Production of Laser Maverick Missiles” has more on the laser-guided variety. The current contract is for the IIR-guided missiles, which are effective at night or in bad weather… ROCAF F-16A fires Maverick(click to view full) The IIR seeker [PDF] on the AGM-65D and G missiles presents a TV-like image on the cockpit display as it senses small differences in heat energy between target objects and the surrounding background. The TV-like IIR image is also used for tracking objects; tracking software enables the missile to distinguish between decoys and legitimate targets. This makes countermeasures to defeat the missile much more difficult to develop. The […]