Jester986 Posted November 2, 2017 Posted November 2, 2017 Came across this interesting anecdote while reading up the AGM 88 During the Gulf War, the HARM was involved in a friendly fire incident when the pilot of an F-4G Wild Weasel escorting a B-52 bomber mistook the latter's tail gun radar for an Iraqi AAA site. (This was after the tail gunner of the B-52 had targeted the F-4G, mistaking it for an Iraqi MiG.) The F-4 pilot launched the missile and then saw that the target was the B-52, which was hit. It survived with shrapnel damage to the tail and no casualties. The B-52 was subsequently renamed In HARM's Way From wikipedia
Vampyre Posted November 3, 2017 Posted November 3, 2017 Here's the more accurate account of the story. Wikipedia sucks. http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/10314/the-time-a-f-4g-wild-weasels-anti-radiation-missile-blew-apart-a-b-52s-tail Truly superior pilots are those that use their superior judgment to avoid those situations where they might have to use their superior skills. If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck! "If at first you don't succeed, Carrier Landings are not for you!"
Weta43 Posted November 3, 2017 Posted November 3, 2017 Wikipedia sucks :) Wiki takes a lot of stick, but I feel like I have to defend Wiki here... Suddenly a F-4G crew picked up the radar of an anti-aircraft artillery battery in the B-52s' path and fired off a HARM from on high. What happened next is the most opaque part of the story, but what seems to have occurred is that the F-4G fired the missile "in the blind," without a specific threat radar being classified before launch. Apparently this was due to the fact that multiple types of anti-aircraft artillery radars have very similar electronic signatures, so many of them were classified simply as AAA by default. (...) the B-52's tail radars are similar to those used by AAA batteries, and were also classified to the default general AAA designation. & During the Gulf War, the HARM was involved in a friendly fire incident when the pilot of an F-4G Wild Weasel escorting a B-52 bomber mistook the latter's tail gun radar for an Iraqi AAA site. (This was after the tail gunner of the B-52 had targeted the F-4G, mistaking it for an Iraqi MiG.) The F-4 pilot launched the missile and then saw that the target was the B-52, which was hit. It survived with shrapnel damage to the tail and no casualties. The B-52 was subsequently renamed In HARM's Way. It's definitely longer, but I'm not sure the 'TheDrive' article is any more accurate, or telling a different story (it admits details are 'murky'). It does say(...)Some claim the F-4G crew actually mistook the B-52's tail gun radar or its missile warning system by accident, but it seems like a real threat did exist, but doesn't give any supporting details as to why that is more likely than the most obvious explanation : The facts are common to both stories. The F-4 crew say they detected a 'General AAA radar' type on the B-52's path & fired the HARM. The 'General AAA radar' that the HARM found & tracked was on the B-52's path because it was attached to the B-52, The link you provided points out that B-52 tail gun radar's are considered 'a 'General AAA radar' type by F-4G WCS, making confusion on the part of the HARM, and the F-4 crew understandable. Nowhere in either article does it say that any radar of a type other than a 'General AAA radar' was actually detected, & both say the HARM was fired at and hit a 'General AAA radar'. One says definitively that it was a case of the F-4 actively firing on a misidentified target (the most obvious course of events ), but doesn't offer 100% proof. The other says it was "Likely" that there was some other explanation (an AAA battery that detected the flight & that the B-52 overflew, but which never opened fire ), but again offers nothing to back this up. Six and two threes for accuracy... (That ended up more writing than I meant it to...) Cheers.
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