Army's common missile.

• Author: Braine, Keenan M.
• Position: Readers forum - Letter to the Editor

The May 2003 article, "Army-Navy 'Common Missile' to Replace Hellfire, Maverick" was informative and a delightful read. You mention the BAT program cancellation as an example of multi-mode sensor weapons experiencing development and management hurdles. Indeed, the Army cancelled basic BAT IOT&E, but the P3I program seems to be humming along.

Curiously, BAT's most unique seeker mode--and what gives it its unique appearance--would seem to make it a bad example in this case. Much of the technical trouble that lead to the basic BAT cancellation was due to wind effects on the acoustic sensors during live fire trials.

To the best of my knowledge, the acoustic sensors weren't used terminally in conjunction with the IR seeker in those failed tests. That would further remove the basic...