Posted on 01/06/2006 11:20:17 AM PST by John Jorsett
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bomb that killed six civilians Monday near Baiji, Iraq, missed its target by 65 feet (20 meters) and hit the wrong home, military officials said.
The bomb, which was dropped by a U.S. fighter plane, was aimed at a building that three men entered after planting a roadside bomb as an unmanned surveillance plane watched from overhead, the officials said.
A U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter jet strafed the building before the bomb was dropped, according to a U.S. military statement released after the nighttime attack.
The bomb had "successful effects against the insurgents," the statement added.
The strike flattened a family's home, killing six of the family members and wounding three others, said a spokesman for the Salaheddin provincial governor's office. A father and daughter survived with only minor injuries, he said.
The Baiji strike was one of 58 air missions the U.S. military carried out Monday over Iraq.
U.S. military officials said they are investigating why the wrong building was hit.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Collateral damage.
Sounds like we need to use much bigger bombs.
125 dead from a suicide bomber today, yet this will lead tonight.
I agree. Not to sound insensitive, but these things happen in the time of war. Does anyone ever remember about when we and the British carpet bombed Berlin, Dresden? How about Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
If we hit the right house and sent 25 jihadists to hell it wouldn't make the news.
Yeah, it is. The US is trying to limit these incidents by building accurate ordinance .. but shite happens in war.
At least we're not doing it the old fashioned way like we did in WWII ... by leveling everything ans then sorting it out
bump
Good point. That picture really is worth 1000 words.
msm could write a book just on this block.. wrong house hit wrong house hit wrong apartment complex hit no german artillery there ... etc...
They are solider not cops. They kill them, they do NOT arrest them. It's war. Americans need to wake up to that.
Message to Iraqis:
If your neighbor is planting roadside bombs, you might want to pick up the phone and give us call.
Sometimes we miss.
Better to get cash-in-hand than to end up as ash in a can.
Thank you for that -- I was trying to put my thoughts into words -- you did it.
:-)
Thank you! I had read comments on the phase-out, but had gathered that it had already happened.
http://www.blackanthem.com/scitech/military_2005121501.html
ROVER System Revolutionizes F-14's Ground Support Capability
As F-14 Tomcat aircraft 207 of the "Blacklions" of Fighter Squadron (VF) 213 launched the morning of Dec. 11, history was made.
For the first time, a forward ground controller, with the call sign of "Antidote," located on the ground near Baghdad, was invited "into" the cockpit of the aircraft via the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER) system.
"The new system allows forward ground controllers to see what the aircraft is seeing in real time," said Lt. j.g. Will Parish, radar interceptor officer. "There is no time delay in the system."
ROVER allowed Antidote to see real-time images acquired by the aircrafts sensors by transmitting the images to his laptop. Usage of ROVER greatly improved Antidotes reconnaissance and target identification, which are essential to the combat air support mission in Iraq.
The development team arrived aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Dec. 10 to install the first ROVER systems onto the Tomcats. The squadron maintainers are quickly learning the modification process, providing both VF-213 and VF-31 with complete ROVER capability within a few days.
ROVER upgrades to Carrier Air Wing 8 Tomcats will more than double the number of aircraft flying Operation Iraqi Freedom missions with this unique capability.
Before ROVER capability, ground controllers had to rely on visual talk-ons to hunt for IEDs, track insurgents or follow suspicious vehicles. The ground controller would have a map he used to guide the pilots where they needed to go.
"The ground controllers are excited because it eliminates talk-ons," said Parish. "It gives them a lot more confidence when making decisions such as dropping bombs, because they have the same real-time bird's eye view as [the pilots] do."
A joint VF-31/VF-213 investigation revealed that it would be possible to modify the F-14D Tomcat with off-the-shelf technology for a mere $800 per aircraft.
A team of F-14D experts from the PMA-241 staff at Naval Air Station Paxtuxet River, Md., was presented with this idea in early November, and were able to research, develop, and field this technology within a six-week window.
Grumman employees from Naval Air Station Oceana and members of the fleet support team from Naval Air Systems Command Depot (NADEP) Jacksonville were assembled to perform the aircraft modification.
"Technology makes us more viable because we have a tool other platforms don't have," said Parish. "ROVER gives us the advantage because ground controllers now prefer us." From USS Theodore Roosevelt Public Affairs
This is indeed unfortunate, but if Iraqi's got together to help stop terrorists ('insurgents'), coming in from Iran or Syria, this would never happen again.
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