Author Topic: 'Missile error' led to RAF deaths (Read 722 times)

Dowding · « **on:** April 09, 2004, 05:45:35 AM »

Mr Riggs said the US Army claimed the RAF airmen had not turned on equipment which tells radar systems like patriot whether a plane is a friend or an enemy.

Scootter · « **Reply #1 on:** April 09, 2004, 05:53:31 AM »

BBC lacks a certain creditability with me, sorry

Nilsen · « **Reply #2 on:** April 09, 2004, 05:56:31 AM »

From that link it is clear that a lack of training and faulty software in the US patriot system is to blame.

Dowding · « **Reply #3 on:** April 09, 2004, 05:57:00 AM »

It is an American embedded journo that has made the claims.

Furball · « **Reply #4 on:** April 09, 2004, 07:23:05 AM »

Quote

US journalist Robert Riggs was embedded with the Patriot unit which shot down their RAF Tornado.

He told the Today programme how the US Army responded to the incident.

"The soldiers that we talked to said that the British Tornado was identified as an enemy missile and the story that the army put out to its own soldiers in the hours after that incident was they were blaming the British flight crew."

Mr Riggs said the US Army claimed the RAF airmen had not turned on equipment which tells radar systems like patriot whether a plane is a friend or an enemy.

"But what the army never disclosed publicly at the time was that the army Patriots were mistakenly identifying friendly aircraft as enemy tactical ballistic missiles", he added.

Imagine the outrage from americans if it had been the other way round, and the British army had shot down a USAF jet.

Replicant · « **Reply #5 on:** April 09, 2004, 07:33:48 AM »

Furby, it definitely wasn't the first and won't be the last. The A-10 has been the worst foe of British ground troops during the last two Iraq Wars. The annoying thing is that the second time round the US had issued British troops with additional equipment so that they wouldn't be fired on. It didn't work.

Furball · « **Reply #6 on:** April 09, 2004, 07:52:53 AM »

A-10 pilot #1 "hey look! down there! tanks!"

A-10 pilot #2 "Are they american?"

A-10 pilot #1 "No... KILL UM!"

A-10 pilot #2 "yeeehawww! we are the rootinest, tootinest cowboys in the wild, wild west!!"

Hortlund · « **Reply #7 on:** April 09, 2004, 08:06:10 AM »

Blue on blue is nothing new. It happens in every war. The only new thing here are the BB-tards trying to spin this into an attack on the US.

lasersailor184 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 09, 2004, 08:07:17 AM »

LMFAO! They are trying to blame america for it. It's just so whoopee funny!

If your IFF decoder is not working, YOU SHOULDN"T BE FLYING handsomehunk! This is what happens.

If it did really happen, the blame rests solely on the pilot and the ground crew.

Nilsen · « **Reply #9 on:** April 09, 2004, 08:46:20 AM »

Hortlund... who is "BB-tards trying to spin this into an attack on the US" ?

lasersailor184... How would you know it was the brits fault?

AKIron · « **Reply #10 on:** April 09, 2004, 08:50:26 AM »

FF incidents are of course regretable and if anyone was negligent they should suffer the consequences.

However, doesn't that article seem to be misleading? If that aircraft wasn't responding to IFF radar interrogations what difference does it make if it were misidentifed as a missile. They would likely have still fired upon it right? Unless they had orders not to fire upon any planes which I guess is possible.

Of course the patriot crew may have believed the tracking radar had been repaired and was functioning properly too. The article itself stated that "the report" was not complete. Maybe they should have waited until it was before demanding a lynching?

101ABN · « **Reply #11 on:** April 09, 2004, 08:55:10 AM »

indeed the A10 has caused some serious friendly fire cases. but its not just the pilots fault. the AWACs are calling and plotting the targets. they give the final clearance to fire. as for the patroit i was in kuwait when the Brit got shot down by the missile. he wasnt the only one. we lost a plane to the same reason. the patroit works 90% of the time. the day that we went into Iraq, we had 12 Scuds launched against us, patroits only shot down 8. not good odds. theres some new equip that we now carry with us to help pilots ID us before they launch. IR strobes are one and a transmitter called the blue force tracker. they helped alot this war.

Torque · « **Reply #12 on:** April 09, 2004, 09:19:45 AM »

Saddam was still launching Scuds in 2001?

majic · « **Reply #13 on:** April 09, 2004, 09:24:42 AM »

2003. I seem to remember the Iraqis lobbed a bunch of missiles into Kuwait at the beginning, not sure if they were SCUDS though.

lasersailor184 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 09, 2004, 09:48:35 AM »

Listen, in every modern day plane there is an IFF coder. What you do is send a message to the plane, if it's friendly, it will send a message back.

If i'm flying over a friendly Military that's the most powerful in the world, the IFF coder is the first thing i would check.

Then I would check the ejection seat.