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This has been a very difficult case, and the verdict
is slightly a controversial decision.
These are the verdicts:
Nojoke:
Guilty on the charge of Friendly Fire. Sentence
is horrible rating instead of good. In effect
6 points deduction from the score for the mission.
Motivation of the verdict:
Nojoke did not take appropriate measures to get
an ID on his target before firing. No NCTR, only
Bogey call from AWACS, no visual ID. Under such
circumstances one should not fire at all.
Nojoke stated that he was not aware of Friendlies
being in that area, but the flight plans of all
allied flights are available in mission schedule
and should be checked to see if your own flight
plan takes you anywhere near friendlies. Timing
can also be checked by looking at steerpoint times
for other flights.
If he had done so, it would have been clear that
there would have been a total of 6 friendly aircraft
in the vicinity of STP 2 besides their own 4-ship
roughly at that time (2 F-16 and 4 A-10). The
jury fully understands the pressure of the situation
Nojoke was in and feels sympathy, but this can
not excuse the incident.
Case closed.
Dragon:
Acquitted from charges of Friendly Fire. Sentence
is to listen to my rambling below :-).
Motivation of the verdict:
Dragon did take appropriate measures to
get an ID before firing, he got a Confirmed Hostile
call from AWACS. This detail is what made us decide
to acquit him of charges.
It is the jury's opinion that this incident could
have been avoided, but Dragon took the correct
measures to ensure ID of target and should not
be punished for AWACS errors. AWACS is not ALWAYS
correct, nor is it in real life (and itīs modeled
that way in RP5 as well), but a fighter-pilot
has the right to take action based on guidance
from AWACS so the blame is on the AWACS in this
case.
It may seem controversial to punish the pilot
who only damaged a friendly and acquit the pilot
who actually shot a friendly down, but thatīs
the way I see it in this case :-).
Case closed.
Note to all 4 who flew that mission:
This unfortunate incident could have been avoided
altogether, several errors led to the flight getting
caught up in a situation it should have done itīs
best to stay out of.
First, as I mentioned earlier, the allied flight
plans should have been studied. That would have
given valuable information on the areas where
allied aircraft should be expected to be present.
This info was fully available in Mission Schedule.
Second, if the flight had 8+ radar returns at
30nm and no idea of what they all were, why did
you continue to close on them? 4 US vs 8 possible
enemy is very bad odds, not to mention that the
US planes were loaded for ground attack! :-)
Entering that fray resulted in your SA being down
at your ankles, and depraved you of the time you
needed for making a positive ID on your targets.
And that loss of SA also resulted in Nojoke losing
contact with his wingman and straying at least
10-15nm north of the flight path which brought
him inside the maximum range of the Su-27's...
who did not hesitate to use their AA-12's at him.
What should have been done was to steer clear
of the unknown formations, since AWACS would have
informed you that there were at least 4 MiG-29
amongst them (vector to threat). You must have
had enough fuel for a long detour if needed with
2x370gallon drop tanks.
Better to arrive late at target then not arriving
at all :-).
That is all. This court is adjourned.
Regards,
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