gtxc2001

An old Snake Driver told me the same thing about 8 years ago. If I recall correctly, it was due to feed issues with the 40mm causing frequent jams.

Doctrinally the 9 line passed by the JTAC should be in the following order: 1. Initial Point (e.g. Chevy) 2. Heading from IP to target in degrees magnetic and offset (usually used if JTAC wants you to one side or the other of the line directly from IP to target. For example, if heading to target is 090, but final attack heading is 135-225, you have to offset left) 3. Distance in from IP to target in nautical miles to the nearest tenth (e.g. 8.3) 4. Elevation on feet MSL 5. Target Description 6. Target Location 7. Target Mark 8. Location of nearest friendly units in cardinal direction from the target and distance in meters 9. Egress instructions Remarks/Restrictions: This is where the JTAC passes amplifying info, to include the all important Time on Target (TOT), Designator to Target Line (to ensure you are in the laser basket of laser guided munitions) and final attack heading, among other things. The final attack heading is usually a range of headings, and expresses the allowable headings for you to fly towards the target prior to ordnance release. If your final attack heading is 135-225, then your nose MUST be pointed between those two heading to get cleared hot (in real life, anyway).

This is true, and according to some info, faster than the Maverick, so I guess the velocity argument WRT to aircraft ordnance separation doesn't hold water. As far as losing the fire and forget capability and the desire for a laser guided weapon, the Laser Maverick is supposed to be more accurate than the TV/IR guided variants, so, as long as your sensor is good enough and the missile has the go juice to travel the distance, a laser guided system does have advantages.

True. I'm thinking about it from the angle of seeker ability to acquire the laser spot, missile time of flight, and aircraft velocity. For example, a rotary-wing platform will travel about 500 meters at 90 knots during missile time of flight during a typical lock-on-before-launch (LOBL) profile. If for instance, you want to attrite a ZSU-23-4, you have to take that 500 meters into account to ensure you don't fly into the WEZ of the ZSU prior to missile impact. Obviously, as your speed increases, so does the range at which you must launch. Granted, this is a simplified scenario that doesn't take into account the ability to turn away from target during missile guidance (TPOD/LPOD/Sensor dependant). Thus, if you want to launch LOBL, seeker ability to acquire the laser spot may limit you to a max launch range that puts you closer the target than desired, given the time it takes the missile to fly down range and the speed of your aircraft. What I really think it boils down to though, is that the HF is a comparatively slow missile, and that creates issues with faster aircraft from a purely aerodynamic standpoint in the case of the missile and (I suspect) separation between ordnance and aircraft post launch. I'm not a fixed-wing guy though, so that's conjecture on my part.

The Hellfire Missile was designed to be employed from low-speed aircraft, and while the A-10 might not be the fastest, I suspect it's airspeed would put it out of the launch envelope of the AGM-114. For what it's worth, the increased warhead weight of the AGM-65 Maverick doesn't translate into a greater probability of kill against most armored vehicles; the Hellfire warhead is more than sufficient. Additionally, at the airspeeds the A-10 flies at, the maximum range of the Hellfire would likely require that the A-10 fly well closer to the target than anybody would want to in an environment with an air defense assets.