When should Mavericks lose the "X"?

[brettt777]

I'm trying to figure out AGM-65's. I can't seem to get the "X" to go away, at least not at first. I saw a video where the "X" went away after the Mavericks were powered up on the ground. Is this correct? If not, what criteria has to be met before it should go away and they say "RDY"? Earlier this evening I was cruising along at 8000 feet. I had a Target designated by a waypoint and when I did that, the seeker head tracked it cuz it was uncaged. At that point, obviously it was timed out. So I had a target, it was uncaged, and it was tracking, I was in range, but the X was still there. I thought at that point I should be able to hold the TDC button and slew the sensor to fine tune it so it will lock on to an actual target instead of a lat/long. But it will not slew at all. What am I missing? Why won't the "X" go away so I can slew it?                               Now, to further complicate the issue, this last time I tried it, I was in range and the sensor was tracking but it still had the "X". Out of frustration, I pushed the weapon release and suddenly "X" went away, the sensor locked directly onto the target ship, the weapon fired, tracked, and hit the target. I put four Mavericks on the ship that same way. Seemed kind of odd that it took four Mavericks to sink a bulk freighter...?                                                      Anyway, I got it to work, but the procedure I had to use seems much different than what I've seen. Am I missing something?              

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

First, there are 2 types of AGM-65, which one are you referring to, E (laser) or F (IR)?

[Goliathus]

Hi brettt777,

if u´re still seeing an X mark on your MAVs, just check if you turned on the A/G mode and MASTER ARM switch on. It seem trivial, but u can get to MAVs via STORES page even if u don´t turn on A/G mode or MASTER ARM switch. So just check it. 

Another thing to check is, if u´re getting a solid target lock. Slewing your MAVs seeker to the point where your TPOD is pointing isn´t always enough. You should take in account that your target could be hidden in trees or in terrain and your MAV´s seeker just can´t get a solid lock. That is when you still get the X mark even if you think everything should be just fine. Well, sometimes it isn´t . So re-check your lock via TPOD, then slew your maverick again and voila, you can ruin someone´s day.

Goliathus

 

[Harker]

The X denotes that the weapon does not meet the conditions required to fire it. For the Maverick, these conditions are: A/G Mode, Master Arm On, seeker is uncaged and actively tracking.

As long as you have an A/G designation, the seeker will be slaved on the designation LOS. However, you still need to command the seeker to track, either by uncaging it and it tracks itself or by depressing and releasing the TDC to command track. Often, if it's already looking at a valid target, it'll track straight out of uncaging.

For the IR Maverick (65F), it needs to track based on the IR contrast of the picture.

For the Laser Maverick (65E), it needs to track a laser spot. There is specific functionality for the Laser Maverick, where if you have a TPOD yourself and the laser is armed, depressing the weapon release button will fire the laser and if the missile is uncaged, it'll fire as soon as it spots the laser, as long as you keep the button held down. So, the MAV will have an X over it, which will go away as soon as the seeker spots the laser, just before it fires. Which is likely what happened in your case.

[brettt777]

4 hours ago, Harker said:

The X denotes that the weapon does not meet the conditions required to fire it. For the Maverick, these conditions are: A/G Mode, Master Arm On, seeker is uncaged and actively tracking.

As long as you have an A/G designation, the seeker will be slaved on the designation LOS. However, you still need to command the seeker to track, either by uncaging it and it tracks itself or by depressing and releasing the TDC to command track. Often, if it's already looking at a valid target, it'll track straight out of uncaging.

For the IR Maverick (65F), it needs to track based on the IR contrast of the picture.

For the Laser Maverick (65E), it needs to track a laser spot. There is specific functionality for the Laser Maverick, where if you have a TPOD yourself and the laser is armed, depressing the weapon release button will fire the laser and if the missile is uncaged, it'll fire as soon as it spots the laser, as long as you keep the button held down. So, the MAV will have an X over it, which will go away as soon as the seeker spots the laser, just before it fires. Which is likely what happened in your case.

Okay then I must have had the wrong kind of Maverick because that is exactly what happened; in A/G mode, master arm on, had a ship as a waypoint designated as a target and uncaged seeker was looking at it. I thought I should be able to press and hold TDC and then slew the thing but I couldn't. But when I pressed weapon release, the seeker suddenly grabbed the target, went RDY, and launched.

Only thing is, if that was a laser type AGM-65, I'm not sure where the laser came from cuz I'm pretty sure I didn't have one loaded.

Anyway, I will verify my load out and try it again.

Thanks!

[rob10]

3 hours ago, brettt777 said:

 I thought I should be able to press and hold TDC and then slew the thing but I couldn't. But when I pressed weapon release, the seeker suddenly grabbed the target, went RDY, and launched.

One little quirk is that with the IR MAV if you have a target DESIGNATED in the POD FLIR, then you CAN'T slew the MAV until you UNDESIGNATE the target.  Then press+hold will allow you to slew it around.

[Harker]

Okay then I must have had the wrong kind of Maverick because that is exactly what happened; in A/G mode, master arm on, had a ship as a waypoint designated as a target and uncaged seeker was looking at it. I thought I should be able to press and hold TDC and then slew the thing but I couldn't. But when I pressed weapon release, the seeker suddenly grabbed the target, went RDY, and launched.
Only thing is, if that was a laser type AGM-65, I'm not sure where the laser came from cuz I'm pretty sure I didn't have one loaded.
Anyway, I will verify my load out and try it again.
Thanks!

If you could see IR picture from the seeker, then you definitely had the 65F. The Laser Maverick does not display a typical video feed, the feed is just a seeker grid and you have the laser code above, which you need to input yourself.

So it's possible that your missile simply locked onto the ship just when you pressed the button by coincidence.

[WobblyFlops]

9 hours ago, rob10 said:

then you CAN'T slew the MAV until you UNDESIGNATE the target

There is some data that indicates this behaviour may be due to simplified implementation. There may be a workaround to keep the designation and still slew but I haven't seen ED ever address these issues.

[brettt777]

22 hours ago, WobblyFlops said:

There is some data that indicates this behaviour may be due to simplified implementation. There may be a workaround to keep the designation and still slew but I haven't seen ED ever address these issues.

Wait... What? So if I have a target designated, as in from a waypoint, I can't slew the seeker head? What if I have say... a TOO that I found and locked with the A/G radar? Should I be able to slew that? Or can I only slew it if I have no target designated?

[Recluse]

You can only slew with no target designated. When you UNDESIGNATE, the MAV seeker will remain ground stabilized at the former designation point, so if the new target is nearby you don't have to hunt too far for it, but once the missile is off the rails, the next MAV will boresight, so if you wanted to fire another one you either need a large amount of slew or Re-designate nearby. This is with REALISTIC TDC SLEW option checked. You might not need to Undesignate when it is not checked.

See for example this GAZACE video. In the comments he says that Realistic TDC SLew is UNCHECKED

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by Recluse