Good points by 1S1E. Albie's points about the differences between a good FAC and a clock-watcher are also well made.

One additional note. Everyone who has done this job knows how badly the FAC/CAS mission is undervalued/underfunded in the AF and, by the way, undertrained/underutilized during peacetime by the vast majority of Army maneuver units. Battle tracking is and always has been a serious issue, especially with mech units in a fluid battle environment. All other factors aside (and there are many), having to rely, in the 21st century, on VS-17 panels as a last-ditch measure to avoid frat is criminal. (Ever try to spot one of those F*&^ers from 18,000 feet slant range?)

I am not a fan of over-technologizing, is that is a word, the FAC/CAS mission, but if ever there was a situation in which a ground IFF system could have saved the day, this was it. Ditto on the ('03?) F-16/Canadian frat in Afghanistan, and ditto on the other A-10/Brit frat during GWI. I did several Air Warrior I excercises (from the air and from the ground) back in the mid '90's with SADL equipped airplanes and the targeting confidence it provided was phenomenal. Where is that technology today and why was it not funded force-wide a decade ago? I have my own ideas, but that is a separate discussion. Someone needs a good ass kicking for allowing this incident to happen, but that person(s) is/are much farther up the food chain than any of the operators who were directly involved.

Just my $.02. Sorry for the rant.

P.S. Albie - It was TTFACORB in my day.

http://www.raytheon.com/products/ste...s01_052820.pdf