Tornado F3/GR4 Question.

[MAINJAFAD]

The saddest thing from my perspective, the decision could have stopped this happening http://www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/.../maaszg710.pdf. The poor old GR4a that was flying this ALARM mission was still running legacy Mode 4 IFF, whereas the F3 had Successor IFF (SIFF) which would not have failed as easily. Furthermore, F3 had Link 16 which is used as the top ID criteria for Patriot. Therefore, whoever made the decision cost 2 guys their lives - and 'no' I am suggesting a 'witch hunt' as the person who did make the decision could not have reasonably understood the consequence (IMHO).

Leon

I was in theatre when this event happened and a few weeks after the incident, I happened to get to chat with some of the Patriot operators at my location about all of the friendly fire incidents that their brethren up north had been involved in (it wasn't just the GR4, they killed a US Navy F/A-18 and its pilot as well and also lost a radar when the F-16CJ that they locked up on didn’t take any chances and loosed off a HARM in quick order). That was the first I heard of the Patriot battery engaging the Tornado thinking it was an ARM and they also called the individual who fired the missile a Muppet! This link gives a good overview of the problems the US Army had with Patriot during OIF.

There is always the case that where would the EF’s be based, well there was only really one location where the infrastructure was already in place and the deal with the land owners were Air to Air and support assets only (though the Yanks did operate HARM shooters from there, but they were there before Telic/OIF kicked off). Given that getting any extra items into that place was a nightmare (especially ARM’s for offensive use, which we hadn’t used on the aircraft in the time we had been there) there is a good chance that the upper echelons decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.