Investigation Finds U.S. Missiles Downed Navy Jet

Washington Post ^ | December 11, 2004 | Thomas E. Ricks

[mad_as_he$$]

Best wishes and heartfelt thanks to the family.

FWIW hasn't the MSM been telling use that Patriot doesn't work.

[El Gato]

The Army has a history leaving it off, strangely believing that their IFF serves as a beacon to the enemy

That would explain leaving a Blackhawk or Apache's IFF off, but not the interrogater on a Patriot fire control radar. The radar itself is about as much "beacon" as anyone would need. Sort of like trying to hide beside a lighthouse on a clear night.

[colt1911]

See my reply above (#18). Patriot has IFF capability, but as the rules of engagement were set up then, it would not IFF query a bogey identified as a missile. In this case, the jet was classified by the computer (wrongly, obviously) as a missile, so no IFF query was performed by the system. I believe they started using manual override to IFF query all bogeys, however classified by the system, after this incident, but I could be wrong.

[Doohickey]

Doesn't matter. A contact squawking mode 1 or 3A is enough, and all ships and aircraft do. There's a mode 4 theater code, so it isn't a question of getting the right CMS loaded.

Though I will say that I've always found the APX-72 to be a complete piece of crap.

[HerrKobes]

but not the interrogater on a Patriot fire control radar

Sorry, forgot to specify the aircraft. I didn't mean to imply that the Patriot battery itself had an IFF transponder. Just the interrogator.