Our own worst enemy?

[Infrared]

Hearing about all the US casualties in this war, I find it amazing that a good portion of this number are our accidents and 'friendly fire'.

I claim to be no expert on the newest military technology, and I can imagine the manic confusion that goes on during wartime, the trigger-happy panic of soldiers behind the lines and whatnot..

But you would think with our lines of communication, there could definitely be more..well..for lack of a better ord...communication between our own forces. About this F/A-18 Hornet that was shot down yesterday, and although an investigation ensues, friendly fire is not being ruled out, by a cruise missile no less. I know there is probably not a great deal of Iraqi aircraft frolicking over the area, so one would think that an aircraft could be differentiated from a SAM for example by our crack-shot team of military executioners!

We have the strongest army in the world, not by numbers, some have us beat there, but by technology (and money). That must be it, for the amount friendly fire incidents our military training could maybe be upped a notch or two...or three.

Thoughts?

Originally posted by Infrared
But you would think with our lines of communication, there could definitely be more..well..for lack of a better ord...communication between our own forces. About this F/A-18 Hornet that was shot down yesterday, and although an investigation ensues, friendly fire is not being ruled out, by a cruise missile no less. I know there is probably not a great deal of Iraqi aircraft frolicking over the area, so one would think that an aircraft could be differentiated from a SAM for example by our crack-shot team of military executioners!

We have the strongest army in the world, not by numbers, some have us beat there, but by technology (and money). That must be it, for the amount friendly fire incidents our military training could maybe be upped a notch or two...or three.

Thoughts?

You cannot program a cruise missle to hit an airborne target... if it was a cruise missle, it was a simple case of a collision.

In addition to the best technology, we do have the best training (save for maybe the Israeli special forces, British SAS, etc.). No amount of training would necessarily decrease the number of friendly-fire incidents.

Now you guys know I am pro-war but I have to agree on this one…I have always wondered this and it pisses me off.

How many accidents do we have happen? At the rate that the government announces these “accidents” it seems that the pilots need to go back to flight school, and that is fucking ridiculous.

I can understand wanting to protect us from the truth so as to not create a panic, but we deserve the truth about our soldiers.

As far as the crashes go... when you're putting that many aircraft in the air at one time under battle conditions, you can expect some of them to have mechanical failures. Flying them around on training missions is one thing - flying them in combat is another. Even with our crack mechanics looking them over, they are being subjected to harsh conditions, both environmentally and tactically.

[Infrared]

Originally posted by scobib
You cannot program a cruise missle to hit an airborne target... if it was a cruise missle, it was a simple case of a collision.

In addition to the best technology, we do have the best training (save for maybe the Israeli special forces, British SAS, etc.). No amount of training would necessarily decrease the number of friendly-fire incidents.

Ooops, sorry, I meant Patriot missile, not cruise! My mistake there.

And I thought there were more forces more well trained than ours, apart from the SAS and Israeli special forces...

[Adam D]

Sometimes, as our military leaders have admitted, some of the troops get too gung-ho and shoot everything in sight.

[Infrared]

Originally posted by Adam D
Sometimes, as our military leaders have admitted, some of the troops get too gung-ho and shoot everything in sight.

Heehee, I was talking to my roommate (eros) the other day about this....

"Dude...stop firing...it's MEEEE....DUDE.....DUUUUUUUUDE!, stop it mofucker!!!! SToP seriously!"