Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Over-eager fanatics shooting anything that moves. Iranian military force structure is rather complicated and split between professionals and religious wingnuts. The professional military forces of the allies had a lot of friendly fire against aircraft in major WWII battles too. A US warship once shot down an Iranian airliner which was descending in their direction and not squawking the right code. History shows that it takes a lot of discipline to not shoot an aircraft that pops up at the wrong place and time. I hate doing DCA for that reason.
Indeed. I recall a couple of Blackhawk helicopters with saddle tanks (sponson mounted long range tanks) being misidentified by a couple of Eagle drivers and taken out back in 1994 in a no-fly zone in Iraq.
The Blackhawks had started the mishap sequence by putting in the wrong transponder codes but they’d checked in with AWACS and been identified as friendlies. The AWACS people continued the chain of the mishap by noting on their screens that the helicopters were friendlies, but not informing the chopper jockeys they were squawking the wrong code.
When they came into the area the two F-15Cs, on a different frequency, asked AWACS if they had any info to pass about aircraft in the area. AWACS neglected to mention the two helicopters...continuing the chain.
Eventually the two F-15s picked up the two UH-60s and couldn’t see a friendly squawk. They notified the AWACS. Nobody on the AWACS told the fighters there were friendlies at that location.
The F-15s closed, but by this time the helicopters had entered a deep valley. The fighters each made visual IDs, one passing within 1500 feet and the other within 1000 feet yet due to the pylon mounted tanks BOTH apparently misidentified them as Hind-Ds.
The F-15s then pulled up astern the Blackhawks and informed AWACS they were engaged, which AWACS acknowledged but again failed to warn them of friendlies in the area. Two minutes later one fired an AMRAAM and the other an AIM-9, downing both US Army helicopters and killing 26 friendlies.
Yeah, it was a total cluster****. Cluster****s happen when there is a war on - and even if you just think there’s one on.