System Failure Is Blamed In U.S. Downing Of British Jet

The plane, hit near the Iraq-Kuwait border last year, could not
identify itself as friendly, a report says.

By Associated Press

LONDON -- A British military jet shot down by a U.S. missile during
the Iraq war was hit after a failure of the electronic system designed
to identify it as a friendly aircraft, the government said Friday. A
U.S. Patriot missile battery shot down the Tornado GR4A near the
Iraq-Kuwait border on March 23, 2003, killing both crew members. The
jet was returning from a mission over Iraq. Defense Minister Ivor
Caplin said several factors contributed to the fatal mistake,
including a failure of the jet's "identification friend or foe," or
IFF, system. Caplin released a summary of findings by a Royal Air
Force Board of Inquiry that investigated the downing. He said the
"immediate cause" of the accident was the Patriot missile battery that
"misidentified" the Torna do as an enemy "anti-radiation missile"
designed to home in on radar systems. Caplin said other factors
included the "wide classification criteria" for anti-radiation
missiles programmed into the Patriot system. He said the Patriot rules
of engagement were "not sufficiently robust to prevent a friendly
aircraft without a functioning IFF system being classified as an
anti-radiation missile." The RAF report recommended that the IFF
system on each aircraft be checked after takeoff and that the
Tornado's IFF installation should be modified so a cockpit alarm
sounds whenever the IFF system fails. In a statement, the U.S. Central
Command said it concurred that the failure of the plane's IFF system
was at fault. "The investigation board determined that the Patriot
crew fired in perceived self-defense in accordance with existing
procedures and Rules of Engagement," the statement said.