Category Archives: Air Force

News related to the United States Air Force

Air Force, Raytheon, weapons systems

Raytheon starts testing smarter Maverick missile

Today’s “things that go boom”  entry: Raytheon announced today that the company has begun testing a new model of the Maverick standoff attack missile for the Air Force designed for greater precision against targets in urban environments and on the move.

The new version, the AGM-65E2, is a semi-active laser guided weapon that  locks onto a target “painted” by a laser directed from the launching aircraft.  Based on the AGM-65E originally developed for the Marine Corps, which can follow a laser spot from the aircraft or a forward observer or other aircraft, the 65E2 will be less apt to be confused by movement of targets, and by clutter in a built-up area, making it less likely that it will hit the wrong target or cause “collateral damage”.

“The newest variant of the laser-guided Maverick is perfectly suited for urban combat and high-speed maneuvering targets,” said Harry Schulte, vice president of Air Warfare Systems. “Because of its accuracy and standoff range, the U.S. warfighter and our international partners can use this weapon against a variety of targets.”

Raytheon’s release at:  Raytheon Starts Developmental Testing of Upgraded Laser-Guided Maverick Missile – Sep 14, 2009.

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Air Force, Contractors & Vendors, General Atomic

Predator crashes in Afghanistan

The Air Force reports, “An Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan Sept. 4 at approximately 8:45 p.m. Kabul time.  The crash was not due to hostile fire. There were no reports of civilian injuries or damage to civilian property at the site…A board will be convened to investigate the incident. ”

The Air Force has has taken a lot of flack for its handling of UAVs, requiring that combat-rated pilots fly the robotic aircraft — and also having lost more Predators to human error than hostile fire.  Almost a third of all Predators purchased by the Air Force have crashed (more than 70 out of the 195 purchased thus far by the Air Force), most of them resulting in a total loss of a $3.5 million aircraft.

Ironically, the crash came only two days after the findings from an investigation of another Predator crash in April near Creech AFB in Nevada. That crash was caused by a disconnected vacuum line.

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