Quote:
BigJim said:
I find it very unrealistic to have friendly fire (air) in modern battles, this is a VERY rare occassion now what with IFF being wide use by almost every major power
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In 2002, a 500-pound laser-guided bomb was dropped on the 3rd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, wounding eight and killing four.
On 28 March 2003 a armoured column was driving near the Shatt al-Arab waterway north of Basra came under fire from a pair of American ground attack aircraft. A trooper named Finney escaped from the burning vehicle. Returned to help his trapped and succeeded in rescuing him. Realising that his comrades inside were all injured, he returned to the vehicle a second time to inform his headquarters of the situation via the radio. He then proceeded to help the wounded safety even while the two aircraft carried out a second attack, hitting Finney in the lower back and legs. Finally, he returned to the scene of the attack a third time to attempt to rescue the injured driver of another burning vehicle. A well deserved GC.
And these wherent even battle related or CAS asignemnts. There have been many close call incdents that never make the offical statistics. Friendly fire is still a huge problem, and going 700knots doesnt make it easier to tell friend from foe.
True, there are IFF systems for ground units, but they arent standarized and I havent encountered it yet.
The problem is that technology alone wont eliminate the possibility of human error and if you order a air strike carelessly then you/someone will have to pay the consequences. The role of a FAC (Forward Air Controller) can be a nightmare in some enviroments, in SPMBT you can just choose an aproach vector and a target hex.
SPMBT however lacks friendly fire between ground troops, but that I guess is out of the game engines capabilities. The only cases is when you fire into the same hex as your troops, but no OP-fire incidents exist.