It's been a while since I watched an A10 run-in on target, but to me this looks more like the guy dropped a bomb vice launched a Maverick - but I'll let you AF guys (oh, like, mebbe, Dusty, the A10 pilot) rule on the caption. Regardless, I like the pic...
An A-10 Thunderbolt II from the U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., drops a AGM-65 Maverick during a close-air support training mission Sept. 23, 2011, over the Nevada Test and Training Range. U.S. Air Force Weapons School students participate in many combat training missions over the NTTR during the six-month, graduate-level instructor course. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Brett Clashman)
An A-10 Thunderbolt II from the U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., drops a AGM-65 Maverick during a close-air support training mission Sept. 23, 2011, over the Nevada Test and Training Range. U.S. Air Force Weapons School students participate in many combat training missions over the NTTR during the six-month, graduate-level instructor course. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Brett Clashman)
BTW: You do NOT drop an AGM-65 Maverick, you launch (fire) one..
The AGM-65D I fired in 1988 had a blast that did look like a Mk-82 500 pound GP bomb.
That otter get Dusty stirred up.
Not a problem; buy them some near-beer, wait ten minutes, and they'll start blowing up their stories.
Cheers
The picture angle is a little confusing. I'm thinking the guy in the picture, if he was in fact the shooter, flew near the impact point to inspect the damage. Otherwise, since the whole point of a forward-firing weapon is to not overfly the target but instead to pummle the heathen from afar, you'd probably never see him. But, as this is a WS sortie, methinks all four of the guys (normally live fires involve 4-ships for a number of reasons) probably ended up "touring" the target area for their own education.
I do remember one 4-ship whose IP launched an older AGM-65 followed by the most impressive g-bias maneuver EVAH (straight up). G-bias is a programmed pitch-up a few microseconds after launch to extend the range of the missile...the motor only burns for a second or two, after which it glides to the target. Since the inital thrust (first half-second) is 10,000 lbs and the missile only weighs 500 lbs or so, the acceleration rate is pretty impressive. Granted, it's not an AIM-9 (that looks like a bottle rocket when it gets going), but it's still a good boost. Which made the guy's missile disappear into the stratosphere almost instantly.
Now what?
Well, to quote King Arthur: "Run away! Run AWAAAAY!" Which everyone did...a horizontal bomb burst with everyone picking a cardinal direction. An eternity later, one guy (probably the IP) spotted a little boomlet a few miles away on the desert floor and the relief was palpable. Of course, Weapons School guys being Weapons School guys, they probably spent the post-mission brief calculating the maximum altitude the missile reached before returning to earth, impact angle, penetration depth, etc., etc.