So - IFF isn't working then? I thought this technology has been working for decades...Quote:
RAF Tornado shot down by Patriot missile
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So - IFF isn't working then? I thought this technology has been working for decades...Quote:
RAF Tornado shot down by Patriot missile
Nothing ever goes wrong, especially when you involve such high powered weapons on every vehicle....(sarcasm).
I am tired of having to defend this. Look at the odds we are against.... are you really shocked that this happened? Thousands of flights, and not one having complication? Not realistic.
It has happened in the past, and will continue to happen in the future. Accidents will happen.
No one is asking you to defend anything - I was merely drawing attention to the fallability of technology...
I am sorry if I seem hostle, it is just that I keep hearing people talk about the down planes, and how our technology is supposed to be the best, etc... I just get tired of hearing people bash the technology that I work with on a day to day basis. They have no idea how good it really is. I just wanted to head off the US bashing that follows on threads like this, not to be hostle towards you.
To add to your last post, "ALL" technology is fallable. There is no getting around it. Us humans created it.
The Patriot missile battery was designed to shoot down SCUDs...
SCUDs, once launched, don't exacly pull tight maneouvers before hitting their targets... as such, why would a patriot missile have high manouverability? It basically has a intercept solution calculated before it ever gets off the ground...
so either the RAF pilot never saw that missile warning light and never heard the alarm blaring in his headset, or it wasn't a patriot, or it was the iraqis ( :confused: )
Scuds don't pull manouvers before hitting their targets, but they aren't well designed missiles, and they're really old. when they finally angle down to hit their target, they break up (fins break, etc) That changes their flight path, and makes it erratic. The Patriots in 1991 couldn't follow such a complex flight path, and...they were slower than the scuds they were trying to intercept. Obviously, those shortcomings have been resolved for the most part.Quote:
Originally posted by siyan
The Patriot missile battery was designed to shoot down SCUDs...
SCUDs, once launched, don't exacly pull tight maneouvers before hitting their targets... as such, why would a patriot missile have high manouverability? It basically has a intercept solution calculated before it ever gets off the ground...
so either the RAF pilot never saw that missile warning light and never heard the alarm blaring in his headset, or it wasn't a patriot, or it was the iraqis ( :confused: )
Either the incident with the british plane was purely human error (they guy pressed the button before thinking), or the RAF plane wasn't equipped with an ID beacon (or whatever they use to detect friendly planes). If that is the case, then all the guy saw was a blip on a radar where there shouldn't have been one. So he fired.
Either way, I don't think the technology is to blame.
Unfortunately the people operating them aren't as reliable.Quote:
Originally posted by MerrionComputin
So - IFF isn't working then? I thought this technology has been working for decades...
not blaming the technology...just saying that someone really, really screwed up bad....Quote:
Originally posted by nishantp
Either the incident with the british plane was purely human error (they guy pressed the button before thinking), or the RAF plane wasn't equipped with an ID beacon (or whatever they use to detect friendly planes). If that is the case, then all the guy saw was a blip on a radar where there shouldn't have been one. So he fired.
Either way, I don't think the technology is to blame.
this is probably one of those very rare occasions where a partriot intercepts a jet aircraft...perhaps even the first?
also...the guy's radar should have some indication of what kind of target that unidentified blip (assumign that was the case) was...
i'm sure he knows that patriots are used against SCUDs, not jet aircraft (although he got lucky on this one i guess)
whatever...how this coudl happen just baffles me.
I just heard that the Patriot in question was not being operated by anyone, and was indeed operating automatically. If that turns out to be true...then its a whole other story.
Machines can't do everything for themselves. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally posted by nishantp
I just heard that the Patriot in question was not being operated by anyone, and was indeed operating automatically. If that turns out to be true...then its a whole other story.
May I ask how old you are?:rolleyes: For your own sake I hope you're not older than 12.Quote:
Originally posted by Nightwalker83
Machines can't do everything for themselves. :rolleyes:
Why the hell couldn't a missile system be set up to operate automatically? It sees a blip on its radar, tries to get a friendly aircraft confirmation, if none is aquired it shoots. There are probably computer games with logic much more complex than that:rolleyes:
Of course none of that explains whether its right, because it obviously screwed up this time.