Friendly Fire from aircraft

[Mobhack]

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

Tell that to the crews of the UK Warriors and CVR(T) shot up in ODS and the recent Iraqui business, and to the various US Bradleys etc shot up in both operations then..

SNAFUS happen, and gee-whiz tech just means that if your gee-whiz IFF transponder goes tits-up, BOTH sides will try to kill you .

Oh - and vehicles do not have IFF transponders, in the last iraqui conflict, they had reflective panels.

If the A-10 pilot thinks he is operating in a designated kill zone he may simply ignore the IFF reflective panel check "because everything in this box will be enemy", and go straight to attack mode without the bother of doing a recognition check, because "they must be bad guys".

Anything with human beings in the loop is subject to human errors and hence, SNAFU. Anything that relies on IFF or other gee-whiz tech is also subject to both electronic AND human SNAFU. The electronic SNAFU just tends to kill you a tad faster than the human variety, is all

Navigation errors happen, even with modern GPS. Observers get thier coordinates wrong. Pilots and arty plotters punch the wrong buttons and enter erroneous data which the gee-whiz kit happily munches up.

War and SNAFU are constant companions.


Cheers
Andy