Yesterday, Raytheon announced receipt of a $5.7 million USAF contract to upgrade software on the TV-guided variant of the Maverick air-to-surface missile. Col. Eric Theisen, Air Combat Command’s advanced programs division chief, said these software modifications will improve the pilot’s ability to visually identify and engage distant targets, thereby enabling greater standoff distances for the missile’s launch and better aircraft survivability. “The Maverick has always been ideal for close air support missions; now it’s even better,” added Harry Schulte, Raytheon’s vice president of air warfare systems.
Special-ops aviators, a physicist from the intelligence community, and an enlisted Marine with decades of deployments: U.S. Space Command’s military and civilian leaders who spoke May 7 were as likely to come from strictly space backgrounds as not. These are some of the day’s insights from inside the command, which…