|
"Short rounds cost us double;
our own that we lose,
and theirs that we don't get."
—Anonymous Fighter Pilot
Various studies conducted by the US military from World War II to the present indicated that airstrikes are responsible for a relatively small percentage of "friendly fire" accidents (such as short rounds) resulting in casualties. However, due to the great destructive potential of ordnance delivered by air, such accidents tend to cause more casualties per accident than either field artillery or naval guns. Short rounds and "friendly fire" accidents occurred due to normal ballistic dispersion of unguided weapons, possible aircrew errors in release parameters (especially if enemy ground fire was active), and aircraft or weapons equipment malfunctions.
Communications errors sometimes contributed to "friendly fire" accidents. Examples that have actually occurred include:
- An Army company commander inadvertently transmitted his own unit's coordinates rather than those of the enemy forces as the target for a blind air strike.
- For a radar controlled air strike, the initial portion of the target coordinates were encoded as "Yankee Foxtrot" but decoded as "Yankee Echo"—resulting in the bombs being dropped exactly 100 kilometers south of the intended target.
- An Army company commander radioed, "Do not bring the napalm closer." Unfortunately, the first two words of his transmission were blocked by a slow keying transmitter—and napalm was spread over some of his own troops.
USAF F-111 dropping low-drag MK-82 bombs. |
To be effective, a Forward Air Controller (FAC) had to know enough about a wide variety of air to ground weapons carried by fighter aircraft, artillery used by the Army, and naval guns based on ships to be sure he was directing the use of the best available type for a specific target. The FAC needed to know how the weapons were delivered, what fuzing options were available, what the likely effects would be, and what the minimum safe distance was to protect both himself and friendly ground forces. By ensuring that all fighter aircraft crews had the target in sight early, by properly choosing attack run in headings, and by paying close attention to safe separation distances from the friendlies, "friendly fire" accidents could be at least minimized.
Before discussing the combat history and performance of the Cessna aircraft flight crews who completed thousands of combat missions in Korea and Vietnam, the…
|
