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Equally dumb American Military
Falcon1
Elite Ranger
in Zocalo v2.0
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6333853.stm[/url]
You know if I was in the British Army I would be increasingly pissed off at the amount of "blue on blue" incidents with US troops. And it always seems to be US troops who do the shooting. I wonder how many incidents occured where British forces shot down, blew up or killed American troops. Not saying the British Army haven't shot their own by accident (was a tank commander who was killed by his own side, and the fact that he had to give up his body armour as there wasn't enough to go round made the incident even more terrible). It does seem to be an increasingly worrying track record.
You know if I was in the British Army I would be increasingly pissed off at the amount of "blue on blue" incidents with US troops. And it always seems to be US troops who do the shooting. I wonder how many incidents occured where British forces shot down, blew up or killed American troops. Not saying the British Army haven't shot their own by accident (was a tank commander who was killed by his own side, and the fact that he had to give up his body armour as there wasn't enough to go round made the incident even more terrible). It does seem to be an increasingly worrying track record.
Comments
It was in your own media a few years ago. This was on going problem from the first gulf war.
[url]http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/06/1041566358550.html[/url]
not much more you can do to protect yourself in that situation, methinks. needless to say the guy has since suffered a total breakdown
The first thing you need to look at is Blue on Blue ground to ground incidents and you will notice its alot lower then air to ground.
Secondly air to ground Blue on Blue incidents regardless of nationality are fairly common. There have been several instances in Afghanistan of RAF on RA Blue on Blue incidents involving Harriers primarily.
The situation in Iraq paints the US airforce and Navy in bad light because there are very few RAF CAS assests in the Iraq theater.
Last but not least, CAS sucks. Especially Fast Jet CAS. Its pretty much impossible for pilots to process what they are seeing in any coherent manner at 400 to 600 knots relative ground speed. Even the later fast props of WWII proved to in hindsite (and access to axis documentation) to have not been terribly effective. And this is not limited to the USAF or USN, WWII and later operations are rife of even the RAF and FAA (fleet air arm) shooting up their own.
big examples are:
1941 HMS sheffield torpedoed by FAA aircraft
1944 - British flotilla attacked by RAF Hawker Typhoons, off Cap d'Antifer, Le Havre. HMS Britomart and HMS Hussar sunk. HMS Salamander damaged beyond repair and scrapped.
1956- Suez Attacks from British Royal Navy carrier-borne aircraft caused heavy casualties to UK 45 Commando and HQ.
in 1943 there was an interesting reverse incident where during Operation Husky ( the invasion of sicilly) Royal Navy vessesls shot down 33 of 144 C-47s making a parachute drop killing 318 americans, this incident remains amongst the deadliest friendly fire incidents experienced by the US military.
Anyway as for the current situation In Iraq during the current war,Id like to point on that US on British Blue on Blue and British on British Blue on Blue casualties are currently tied at 5 a piece
One of the saddest ones on the British side in Iraq was the tank commander who got shot by one of his own in a fire fight. He had no body armour on because he had to give it up due a shortage (widespread across the UK armed forces really). Other troops on the frontline needed them. If he had the armour on he would have survived. The MOD stance was that sufficient supplies were "in theatre", meaning extra gear was around but probably a few hundred miles away at another base. Of course no one got blamed/charged for anything.
But yeah its easy to sit back and criticise blue on blue situations. Everything happens so fast in war, you hesitate and you die. Even having a harmless game of paintball illustrates how easy it is to get hit. Luck has so much to do with it.
Sorry it just annoys me wen ppl get the name wrong :P