Replies

Okay... let's ask the RN pilots who successfully identified Argentine ships during the Falkland Islands war. They certainly could identify a ship and shoot later.

There was NO justification for attacking without taking a identification pass, period.

Okay... let's ask the RN pilots who successfully identified Argentine ships during the Falkland Islands war.

That population is equal to zero. The only time any Argentine ships were engaged was when the General Belgrano was torpedoed by the submarine HMS Conqueror.

Target ID was much simpler for the Argentine Air Force: if it's near the Malvinas, it's British.

The British announced a maritime exclusion zone around the Falklands. The only ships present were

There was NO justification for attacking without taking a identification pass, period.

Actually, there is: there was a shooting war underway, and the US naval attache in Tel Aviv had said, "we've got nothing in the area."

By the way...

Are you holding that the same is true for the USS Vincennes, when she shot down the Iran Air Airbus in 1988? Are you saying that there was no excuse for failing to identify the target prior to engagement?

Go look up the sinking of the Bismarck. Look up the Swordfish flight from the HMS Victorious. The pilots were looking for 40,000 ton battleship and were to be directed by a British cruiser, the HMS Sheffield. These "stringbags" flew at 100 knots. Instead of taking directions from the Sheffield whose radio frequency they followed, the Swordfish attacked their own cruiser.

Mistakes happen in war.