Not only do we have to worry about Blue on Green attacks, the Taliban shooting down our helicopters...but now we also have to consider the feelings of a justifiably pissed off ally.
I like monitoring the British and Australian Ministries of Defense because they're so similar to ours. Maybe its a cultural thing..I don't know. What I do know is that the Brits are in the middle of a slow boil over a disturbing incident that cost the life of one of their soldiers.
Ya see.
One of our AH-64's killed the son of one of our staunchest allies.
Check this out from the Daily Mail.
A 23-year-old soldier who was killed when a US Apache helicopter fired on a British base in Afghanistan died as a result of 'mistaken beliefs and cumulative failures', a coroner ruled today.Read the whole article but this is just a polite way of saying that not only did our pilots fuck up, but that they should have known better.
Lance Corporal Christopher Roney, from Sunderland, died from head injuries at Patrol Base Almas in Sangin on December 21 2009.
After a five-day hearing Sunderland Coroner Derek Winter listed a series of errors made leading up to the tragedy.
He ruled: 'L/Cpl Christopher Roney died as a consequence of assumptions made, mistaken beliefs and cumulative failures by friendly forces to appropriately assess the totality of their situational awareness in respect of the ongoing events at and in the vicinity of Patrol Base Almas on December 21 2009.
'The deployment and use by friendly forces of attack helicopters was done in circumstances that ought to have been assessed by them to conclude sooner than they did that their target was not an enemy force and that the attack should be aborted.'
This is a pretty damning assessment especially after being engaged in combat for over 10 years. Command and control should be better. But before I stick my foot any further in my mouth let me say this as loud as I can...I WASN'T THERE SO I DON'T KNOW!
What I do know is this.
The Brits are pissed and this situation needs to be handled properly.
I've been following this story a bit, and from what i've heard there were errors in Command and Control, but essentially, the Apache pilots should have realised that a well defended, barb-wired, flag bearing patrol base full of guys in body armour and helmets didn't fit the bill of a Taliban firing point. So they probably shouldn't have decided to take a punt an empty 200 rounds of 30mm into it. There were 11 casualties in that one incident.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately this is something that has become a bit of a running thing to hear about through Iraq and Afghan with the British. Some US pilots prefer to shoot first and not ask any questions. There are even videos on Youtube of clearly marked British convoys in Iraq getting hit by F15's. The Yanks don't help by refusing to allow their guys to be questioned at coroners inquests etc.
Should point out its war and will happen and its a rare thing, but it seems to be that there have been times when it was avoidable if the US pilots had held off and thought a little where, dare I say, a British pilot might have. Its why I like US Marine pilots, grunts first, so more likely to realise when its a Patrol Base etc.
Unfortunately we have a history of friendly fire attacks from the air on our Allies. We did the same to Canucks in Afghanistan and Brits in Iraq during Desert Storm and OIF.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't have anything to do with US pilots becoming over-reliant on blue force trackers is it?
ReplyDeletethe more i read about this the more it seems that the pilots just wanted to shoot something.
ReplyDeletethey wanted action, wanted to sink their fangs into something and when the enemy melted away the fangs stayed out so they bit. too bad they bit our own guys.
Must say that having been on the ground over there with 16AA I'm always wary when my FAC calls for help and a Yank voice answers (either Army or Air Force) and I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience some US fliers are a bit trigger happy and not too worried about verifying trade before opening up. .
The Marine guys are good, always confirming and reconfirming targets with us guys on the ground before
engaging. No problems with them at all.
Dont get me wrong, i owe my life to A-10 close air support, but it still scares the hell out of my that my life could be ended so easily.
16AA? Damn good unit! and i'm reading ou loud and clear!
ReplyDeleteOn reflection i need to clarify my point.
ReplyDeleteThe issues i had were always with National Guard pilots not regulars.
Maybe it was insufficient training or time at the controls or time in a combat zone, but the talking onto a target with the FAC was minimal at best.
On the other hand British AH pilots wouldnt engage until they had a full visual confirmation and desription from the ground that 100% matched. It was sometimes very frustrating when under fire but it worked.
"The Apaches, which had the call-signs Luger 67 and Luger 61, were asked by British commanders to assist and a series of grid references were passed on.
ReplyDeleteLuger 67 and 61 were directed to a compound and were told to look for three men on a roof - who were believed to be insurgents but were actually British soldiers fighting off the Taliban.
The crews were authorised to fire and Luger 67 passed over the compound twice as Luger 61 covered."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-19479549
So, Brits called in coords, Brits directed Apaches towards compound (FULL OF BRITS!), Brits tell Apaches to look for 3 guy on the roof, Brits authorize Apaches to fire on guys on the roof.
Seriously, what the hell were those Apaches pilots thinking?!?!
good old days with atari games http://playhelicoptergame.org/
ReplyDelete