Friendly fire video released.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

its about time someone came up with a transponder in all military tanks/trucks that transmits a given code (to be changed daily or some such) that broadcasts said tank/truck as a Friendly - anything else is just too weak to work in every case

Wouldn't the siganl give away your position to the enemy?

[Sir Moody]

Wouldn't the siganl give away your position to the enemy?

probably but it has to be better than orange panels to let your air forces know who to shoot...

there must be a better way say uv paint or something that the aircraft cameras could pick up... i dont know but surely there has to be something better than orange panels (which of course if we the public have been told you can bet the insurgants etc know and will use)

[Watchman]

Actively broadcasting an IFF signal sounds to me like a Bad Idea as far as the modern battlefield goes. Wouldn't that be like yelling to the other guy "hi it's us here, please shoot us!" ? Plus I'd imagine it was suspectible to electronic warfare anyway, making it kinda unreliable.

Some sort of reactive system that responds to queries ("Are you USMC XYZ123? No ? Eat missile then.") would to my layman's thinking appear like at least somewhat safer alternative, if one still suspectible to all kinds of interference.

Which kind of leaves the tried-and-true method, some sort of "field-sign" and Organic Eyeball 1.0(tm) as have been used since men first started trying out this newfangled organized warfare thingy.

[lancelot]

Wouldn't that be like yelling to the other guy "hi it's us here, please shoot us!" ?

You dont even have to go to that much trouble with americans as your allies!


Did anyone just see the UK ITN news a few minutes ago? They had a bit of footage of the next door neighbour of the pilot.

He considers the pilot a hero, then went on to criticise the UK and europe's lack of action in the war on terror and then implied it was somehow all being left to the americans like it was in WW2!

What a prick!

So we have an ally killing 'hero', the Uk not doing enough on the war on terror (er...arnt we there in Iraq with you...getting shot at by you?) and a profound misunderstanding of history...

What a genius...

[ajaxfetish]

So we have an ally killing 'hero', the Uk not doing enough on the war on terror (er...arnt we there in Iraq with you...getting shot at by you?) and a profound misunderstanding of history...

And a neighbor who, while representative of an unfortunately large number of Americans, is by no means representative of us all.

I agree with what most here have said. Friendly fire is a tragedy, and one that we must do all we can to prevent, but one that is all but inevitable in the chaos of an actual war. The pilots were a little too hasty in my opinion. Since they noticed the orange panels (even if they may have somewhat resembled rockets) and they gave them pause, they should have waited for a stronger confirmation and erred on the side of caution. How much stress and fatigue may have inhibited their good judgment I don't know. More responsibility seems to lie with the controllers who assured them there were no friendlies in the area. I'm sure neither had any desire or intention to harm friendly troops, and the ground controllers were probably just as horrified by what happened as the pilots were.

The concerning part, again, is the denial of the tape. I think Redleg expressed that best, and I can't even see why it would need to be classified except to avoid embarrassment. The pilot is neither a hero nor a villain, but a soldier who made an unfortunate mistake in the line of duty. The important thing is how we respond to situations like this: whether we come together and learn from them, or whether we lie about it and divide ourselves further.

Ajax