UPDATE at 17:24 Eastern: An unnamed “US official” just told European Pravda that friendly fire was “probably not” the cause of the F-16 crash. It’s worth noting that this is contradictory to what other US military officials are saying.
I say, let Ukraine perform their investigation and then we’ll see.
Thank you, John. When I started to write in my own voice, and broke from the dry style that I used as a journalist, I started to enjoy writing more. Unsurprisingly, that’s also when my audience started to grow. I think there’s an authenticity that people crave these days, especially as AI content picks up. Thanks for reading!
Looks like there is a communications failure (or very little) between the Patriot crews and Air Force. Could these incidents be prevented if they talked to each other?
Absolutely, Bob. The US has Joint Operations Centers (JOCs), Joint Air Operations Centers (JAOCs) designed to be hubs of inter-service collaboration during operations. These ops centers bring together personnel from the army, navy, air force, and other branches. But while these help with facilitating faster communication and decision making, we saw in 2003 that they are no guarantee against some friendly fire incidents. The same is true in Ukraine. Even a dedicated JOC helping defend against Russian missiles might not stop a malfunctioning Patriot interrogator.
I saw a report that an official, Ukrainian source saying it was pilot error, and mourning the pilot citing inexperience and differences between the F-16 and the Mig he'd mostly flown, so interesting that you're hearing this.
You key point about the Patriot sometimes failing needing to be viewed in light of its undoubted success., but I don't get why differentiation between missiles and aircraft is significant (the line will blur as unmanned aircraft move into roles currently done by manned systems), much less why it should take priority over friend or foe.
When is killing a friendly airframe good ?
When is killing an enemy airframe bad ?
IFF is a pretty old concept, and should be added to systems at a low and omnipresent level.
But tech goes wrong. And complicated tech does so in mysterious ways.
UPDATE at 17:24 Eastern: An unnamed “US official” just told European Pravda that friendly fire was “probably not” the cause of the F-16 crash. It’s worth noting that this is contradictory to what other US military officials are saying.
I say, let Ukraine perform their investigation and then we’ll see.
You write so that this interested Liberal Arts major can actually understand what’s going on. Thank you!
Thanks for the kind words, Gray. And thanks for reading!
In my opinion, you write very well. Easy to follow..,and I’m a septuagenerian engineer!
Thank you, John. When I started to write in my own voice, and broke from the dry style that I used as a journalist, I started to enjoy writing more. Unsurprisingly, that’s also when my audience started to grow. I think there’s an authenticity that people crave these days, especially as AI content picks up. Thanks for reading!
Authenticity is exactly right!
Looks like there is a communications failure (or very little) between the Patriot crews and Air Force. Could these incidents be prevented if they talked to each other?
Absolutely, Bob. The US has Joint Operations Centers (JOCs), Joint Air Operations Centers (JAOCs) designed to be hubs of inter-service collaboration during operations. These ops centers bring together personnel from the army, navy, air force, and other branches. But while these help with facilitating faster communication and decision making, we saw in 2003 that they are no guarantee against some friendly fire incidents. The same is true in Ukraine. Even a dedicated JOC helping defend against Russian missiles might not stop a malfunctioning Patriot interrogator.
I saw a report that an official, Ukrainian source saying it was pilot error, and mourning the pilot citing inexperience and differences between the F-16 and the Mig he'd mostly flown, so interesting that you're hearing this.
You key point about the Patriot sometimes failing needing to be viewed in light of its undoubted success., but I don't get why differentiation between missiles and aircraft is significant (the line will blur as unmanned aircraft move into roles currently done by manned systems), much less why it should take priority over friend or foe.
When is killing a friendly airframe good ?
When is killing an enemy airframe bad ?
IFF is a pretty old concept, and should be added to systems at a low and omnipresent level.
But tech goes wrong. And complicated tech does so in mysterious ways.