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