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Whilst
on-route to SP 3 I heard Nojoke in Falcon 1-1
give a bullseye to some contacts he had on radar,
I changed the range on my radar to 80 miles whilst
in RWS mode, slewed my cursors to bullseye position
but got no contacts. I altered the elevation of
my radar up and down one notch but again no contacts
were detected, except for BB in Falcon 1-3 approx.
3 miles ahead of me, and Falcons 1-1, 1-2, at
my 11, o'clock about 6 miles ahead.
More Bullseye contacts were called out but again
apart from Falcon flight I did not get any contacts.
We flew on, BB reported radar contacts to our
right, I slewed my cursors to the position and
got multiple contacts on radar, at least 8 blips,
this was at approximately 30 miles range on my
radar. I heard Nojoke and Jester reporting that
they were engaging the nearest targets.
I switched to TWS to try and sort the contacts
better, Again many blips, very difficult to sort,
I heard Nojoke call Fox3, about a second after
that I heard over the radio"are you crazy" I thought
then "Nojokes not going to be very happy".
I heard Nojoke shout missiles inbound, things
were getting intense. I locked one of the blips
in the middle of the group of contacts I had,
assuming that Nojoke and Jester and BB would have
locked the nearer ones. According to TWS it was
nose hot to me approx. 5000ft below, I was at
approx. Angels 25 at this point. I did not get
any ID from the new NCTR system. So I got on the
Radio "AWACS Declare", as AWACS was replying one
of the others said something via R/W and drowned
out the reply, Lousy timing I thought. So again
"AWACS Declare" the reply I got, and I was very
clear on this "Contact is confirmed Hostile" at
this point I hit the pickle button. My AMRAAM
screamed of the rail, at this point I also got
the "Are you crazy". My heart sank, I was thinking
to myself " AWACS declared this contact Hostile,
what the hell is going on"."was there black smoke
trails, yes but there were an awful lot of smoke
trails at the time".
Unfortunately it was to late, About 2 secs from
impact I switched to Missile view and saw my AMRAAM
hit the
A-10 :-(.
What could I do!!, so I continued with the mission,
and got back to Home Plate.
I would just like to say to the Board, that this
is my first friendly fire incident that has happened
to me whilst flying with the 185th. I am very
meticulous when engaging contacts I always check
with the NCTR system, although this new system
I feel is not very good, you have to be on top
of a contact before it ID's it.
I always check with AWACS before firing, if the
call is Outlaw, I wont fire (why do you think
my A-A kills are always very low, because everyone
else has fired before I decide it is safe to do
so) If the call is Hostile, I still hesitate briefly,
I size up the situation and then fire if I deem
no other friendlies are close by.
I regret what happened, but feel I was right to
fire, AWACS called my locked contact Hostile.
Radar was cluttered with contacts, sorting them
was a nightmare. My contact was nose hot to me,
and we know that
MiG-29 and Su-27 were out there, and we all know
how deadly they can be. Considering the intense
situation at the time, I feel I reacted correctly.
I await the verdict of the board!
2nd lt Dragon
Black Flight.
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