Fire and forget eh? Yeah except sometimes the miss their mark completely. Specifically against small targets sometimes. Does anyone know anything about what affects the accuracy of these missiles? I wonder whether perhaps flying too low when launching them, even with a full lock from 20kms, can mess with your chances to hit a small target?

I haven't played the game yet so I can't say anything about the accuracy with which the weapons are programmed, but AFAIK mavericks aren't fire and forget weapons, they are either TV guided or you have to lase the target.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-65_Maverick

Yeah I think you have to fly up higher than 500 feet at least. Not sure though I'm just getting back into it. I fired a few from lower than that at ships and they splashed in before getting to the target. The manual says attack altitude is 500'+.

All rockets have a chance to miss.
If you wait after lock-on to come closer, then the square becomes red you have a higher chance to hit.

Also certain weapons are better at certain targets.
There was a chart in the manual.

The Mavericks are indeed fire are forget. I can tell you from personal experience in this game that they a weird. After you get a lock on a target I would wait a few seconds before firing at the target (assuming you just go in range of the target. if you just turned on a target, ignore) Also even though 500' is the minimum altitude I would go to at last 1000' this way the maverick isn't coming in from such a low angle.