The AIM 9-L/M consists of four external sections: the guidance and control unit, the warhead section, the fusing section and the rocket motor section.

Guidance and Control Unit: This is located in front of the missile and houses the seeker head, the argon gas bottle, the guidance control unit (GCU), and the steering canards.  The seeker head receives IR energy from a heat source and converts this energy into an electrical signal that is used to navigate the missile.  The seeker head is cooled with argon gas to improve its sensitivity.  The electronic signal is used by the GCU to keep the seeker head looking at the target and to steer the missile with the front canards.

Warhead Section: This section consists of metal casing and a cellulose liner.  The casing itself delivers the fragments while the liner controls casing break-up to provide a uniform size.  The missile kills with frag, not by contact.

Fusing Section: The AIM 9-L/M houses 8 optical target detection windows aft of the canards to affect missile fusing.  Fuse arming is delayed after missile launch to provide safe separation from the delivering aircraft.  Once armed, the fuse will function on either contact or a proximity miss with the target.  The target must be within a certain radius of the fuse before the fuse will function.

The AGM-65D is separated into forward and aft sections.  The forward section is a hermetically sealed guidance unit consisting of an IR dome, IR seeker, electrical contact trigger, autopilot, and electronics assemblies - including a digital computer.  The missile seeker is located immediately behind the guidance unit window.  The seeker is gyro-stabilized and free to move left and right 42 degrees, up 30 degrees, and down 54 degrees from the longitudinal axis of the missile.  The Maverick seeker also incorporates a duel field-of-view lens that rotates to provide selectable magnification of the target.  The wide field-of-view function provides increased target-area orientation, while narrow field-of-view provides maximum launch ranges and improved target identification.

The AGM-65D guidance unit IR detector converts IR energy into electrical signals.  The internal computer converts these signals into a TV-like picture, enabling a pilot to identify and lock onto objects within the seeker field-of-view.  The electronics assembly, which operates the seeker unit, also tracks the target and generates missile steering commands.  The autopilot combines these steering commands with gyro-sensed yaw, roll, pitch, and lateral acceleration rates.  From this information, the autopilot computes course corrections to steer the missile on a collision path to the target.

The aft section is located behind the missile guidance unit and contains a 125 lb. shaped-charge warhead designed to penetrate 26 inches of armor, 32 inches of steel, or 10 feet of concrete.  Housed in the aft core of the warhead is a safe, arming, and fuse (SAF) unit.  As the missile encounters a designed acceleration/time envelope during launch, the SAF arms the warhead.  Warhead detonation is initiated by a contact trigger in the nose of the missile or by a mechanical backup detonator in the SAF, which functions when the missile encounters a lateral deceleration of at least 75 Gs.

A typical 20mm round consists of four basic parts: a brass cartridge case, an electronic primer, propellant powder, and the projectile.  When fired, an electrical pulse is applied to the primer, which is located on the bottom of the round.  This action produces a flame that travels through gas vents leading to the propellant chamber.  The flame ignites the propellant.  As the propellant burns, it forms a gas that forces the projectile through the barrel.  At the rear of the projectile is a soft metal band that seats in the grooves on the inside of the gun barrel.  These grooves are twisted, so as the round leaves the barrel it follows the grooves and rotates the projectile for more stability during flight.  The soft metal band also keeps the gas from escaping past the projectile.