Times when American forces mistakenly shot their own troops

Central Command (CENTCOM), the unit in charge of US military operations in the Middle East, announced on December 22 that the cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18F fighter while the aircraft was on duty. service in the Red Sea region. A US navy official said the incident happened at 3:00 a.m. on December 22.

After the fighter was hit by a missile, the two pilots launched their escape pods and were safely rescued. Both the USS Gettysburg battleship and the F/A-18F fighter are part of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier battle group. US forces are said to be considering salvaging the plane’s wreckage.

This is not the first time the US has had an incident of “our troops shooting our troops”, even though the country is the world’s leading military power and operates advanced enemy-us identification technology.

One of the most famous incidents occurred on April 14, 1994 in northern Iraq, within the framework of Operation Consolation (OPC) carried out by the US to support Kurdish refugees after the 1991 Gulf War. .

At that time, two US Air Force F-15C Eagle aircraft operating under the command of an early warning aircraft (AWACS) mistakenly identified two US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters as helicopters. Iraqi military Mi-24. Therefore, two F-15C Eagles launched missiles that destroyed the helicopters, killing all 26 people on board, including American, British, French, Turkish and Kurdish soldiers.

The investigation results showed that many mistakes occurred, including the F-15 pilots being criticized for mistaking their teammates for enemies, and the AWACS crew was at fault for not intervening.

In addition, the enemy-us identification equipment on the two Black Hawks did not work properly, and the US Army helicopters were not well integrated into general air force operations within the OPC framework.

Several US Air Force officers were administratively punished, only one member of the AWACS crew was brought to a military court, but this person was found innocent.

Another notable incident of shooting a teammate by the US military occurred on April 2, 2003, near the city of Karbala in central Iraq, while two F/A-18 fighter ships were returning to the carrier. USS Kitty Hawk.

A Patriot battery mistakenly identified the F/A-18’s radar signal as an Iraqi missile and notified the Information Coordination Center, the US air defense command in the area. Not long after, another Patriot battery also detected the fighter ship and came to the same erroneous conclusion, believing that they and American forces in the area were under attack.

These reports caused the command center to decide to allow two anti-aircraft missiles to be fired to take down the target, causing the F/A-18 to crash and the pilot to die.

The subsequent investigation concluded that the incident stemmed from a series of systematic errors of judgment, not carelessness, and that the service members involved were not subject to any disciplinary action.

This is the second incident of “our troops shooting our own troops” by US forces in more than a week. Previously, on March 22, 2003, a British Tornado GR4 fighter was shot down by the US ally’s Patriot air defense complex near the Iraq-Kuwait border, killing both crew members. The plane was mistakenly identified as a radar-killing missile.

According to investigation results, the enemy-friendly identification system on the Tornado GR4 stopped working mid-flight, even though it was checked before the flight. The cause is believed to be due to a problem related to the transponder’s power source and this error also prevents the warning system from being activated to signal the pilot when the missile approaches.

Meanwhile, the Patriot system operation team has only been in Kuwait for about a month and has not been provided with full standard equipment. They were also on high alert at that time, because another base in the area had just been attacked with grenades.

The operations team could only communicate with battalion headquarters through a single radio link, which limited their situational awareness as the Tornado began to descend to return to base after Complete the air strike mission.

When the enemy-friend identification system on the British plane did not respond, the Patriot missile automatically identified it as a threat from Iraq, leading to a deadly incident.

Another US ally, Canada, was also a victim of the situation of “our troops shooting our own troops”. On April 17, 2002, on the way back to base after completing a patrol mission in Afghanistan, two F-16 fighters of the US National Guard passed through the desert near the southern city of Kandahar, where Canadian forces are conducting live fire exercises.

Mistaking that he was being attacked from the ground, one of the two pilots asked the command headquarters for permission to bomb the target, but was ordered to wait due to unclear information.

However, the pilot then arbitrarily dropped a 500 kg guided bomb below under the pretext that he was being targeted by enemy artillery, killing 4 Canadian soldiers and injuring 8 people. These are the first Canadian soldiers to die in action since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The following pilot did not have to go to a military court, but was only convicted of irresponsibility when on duty, reprimanded and deducted one month’s salary.