F-22 Utilized in First Combat Mission

[Flash]

To counter your anecdote with an anecdote, the good guys they killed on the ground in Afghanistan a few months ago would.

Many platforms have been involved in friendly fire incidents, including the A-10 several times as mentioned previously.

 

[Swanee]

Probably because of the 2001 B-52 friendly fire incident when the JTAC's GPS reset causing them to read their own coordinates instead of the target for line 6. We always teach crew to plot target and friendlies IOT check that the line 8 distance and bearing actually makes sense, as well as sensor correlate with the JTAC when possible (i.e, that grid falls at the east side of a bridge over a N-S river allowing a final crew-JTAC crosscheck that the coordinates are where he intended them).

You are correct, ideally there would be no friendly grids on the radio but without TRPs or sensor/visual talk on to friendlies they need some way to crosscheck line 8 in a BOC situation.

No. Hell no. The wrong guys get killed that way. Best advice I got about this type of scenario: "The JTAC did his job, it's your turn to do yours."

 

[MIDNJAC]

Completely agree with all that has been said about 9 line read backs, but I will say that there have been a lot of real world occasions where I have been read a friendly grid, separate from a 9 line or kinetic event. Most JTACs will make it extremely clear with some voice inflection that it is a "FRIENDLY GRID", but it has had a time and place in my limited experience. I've also had to query a couple slightly below average JTACs in that scenario to make sure we were on the same page. It should make the hairs on your neck stand up, but it can serve a purpose if not integrated directly into line 8 of a 9 line.

 

[Hotdogs]

If I am not mistaken the latest Bone frat incident had to do with the JTAC losing SA on the location of all friendly players - not passing the friendly grid. Or am I missing something?

 

[pourts]

I haven't read any investigation or lessons learned from the latest B-1 frat incident.

However, just to echo what Hotdogs said, line 8 does not always reference the JTAC/FAC position. It is the closest friendly, which may or may not be where the JTAC is.

 

[Lawman]

If I am not mistaken the latest Bone frat incident had to do with the JTAC losing SA on the location of all friendly players - not passing the friendly grid. Or am I missing something?

That's the brief we got.

I'm teaching Phil's to among other things do the JTAC thing (gonna be a long road). Rule #1 you always have to know which way is north. Rule #2 you must always know where your friendlies are!

 

[pourts]

That's the brief we got.

I'm teaching Phil's to among other things do the JTAC thing (gonna be a long road). Rule #1 you always have to know which way is north. Rule #2 you must always know where your friendlies are!

What are Phil's?

Second, where did you find a write-up on that frat episode? Was it from the Air Force side? I would like to get my hands on it so that I can talk about it with the rest of my Battalion's JTACS and JFOs.

 

[Lawman]

What are Phil's?

Second, where did you find a write-up on that frat episode? Was it from the Air Force side? I would like to get my hands on it so that I can talk about it with the rest of my Battalion's JTACS and JFOs.

Philippines = Phil's. Like Danes or Pol's they actually call themselves that.

We got the word of mouth brief just because of the weird collection of guys on our team as well as the Task force. I don't think they've posted the gritty full release details of the investigation yet. I know the Centcom review was posted up earlier this month and blamed comm breakdown but didn't name parties specifically. They left it to the services to figure out what to do with their findings, but the word we got was the Aircrew has already been cleared.

 

[pourts]

That's the brief we got.

I'm teaching Phil's to among other things do the JTAC thing (gonna be a long road). Rule #1 you always have to know which way is north. Rule #2 you must always know where your friendlies are!

I like to carry a compass (personal one, not from the armory) right on the front of my flak in a grenade pouch. It can't be jammed, it never runs out of batteries, and it weighs less than a pound. And lets face it, I won't ever be carrying 2 frags. In 5 seconds I can get the Pointer or Laser-Target-Line. This is especially helpful when the JFOs have changed the settings to mils (or you forgot to preflight your gear). Add 20 and 50 and you have the left laser basket, with some room for error built in. Subtract 50 and 20 and you have the right laser basket. Another 5 seconds and you have the corrections nailed down for a non-precision attack.

I have had a couple occasions when the Vector wouldn't align, or when it gave obviously false data. Lots of the grunts like to wear those tiny compasses on their watch bands. I am not a fan because I had one that got ripped off after 1 week of use, and I can get direction just as quickly with my real compass. And, I don't look like a douche when I go out on libo. Actually, I still look like a douche but it isn't my watch's fault. I also think this is faster than using the killswitch tablet, partly because the graphics processors are very slow on those things. And, they break when you drop them, run out of batteries eventually, and are hard to read in the sun. They are great for planning purposes though, or if you need to carry GRG's for like 100 different compounds.