Wouldn't it be simpler if all allied armies had a transponder database so they could identify friendlies
EXCERPT:
...
What had Happened Was
To understand how a modern air defense system shoots down its own allies, you can dive into the
Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system. On paper, it’s the equivalent of a digital handshake. A radar interrogates a target, then the target’s transponder shouts back a secret, encrypted code that says, “Don’t shoot, I’m on your team.”
In the isolation of a training exercise, IFF is fairly foolproof. In the strange chaos of
Operation Epic Fury, it is a fragile tether.
On the night of the incident, Iran had saturated the airspace with an eclectic mix of different threats, ranging from ballistic missiles to slow-moving Shahed drones. When the sky is that “dirty,” the electronic noise is deafening.
The Kuwaiti Patriot batteries and short-range air defense (
SHORAD) systems were likely operating in a deconfliction haze. If the F-15s were flying a specific profile, perhaps dipping low to avoid Iranian radar or operating in a blind spot for local electronic warfare, the Kuwaiti systems may have simply “timed out” while waiting for a response.
When operating in a high-threat environment, where a three-second delay could mean a drone hits critical infrastructure, the machine’s instinct is to fire.
The F-15Es, although incredible at air-to-ground missions, lack certain modern tail warning sensors that would have alerted the pilots to a missile launch coming from their six o’clock, especially one fired by a friendly battery they weren’t expecting to be hostile.
The Clumsiness of Operation Epic Fury
Combined arms gets spoken of like it’s a perfectly conducted orchestra, but Epic Fury has proven it’s more like a 90’s mosh pit. The U.S., Israel, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are all firing into the same narrow corridors. The coordination required to track every transponder in a massive drone-and-missile wave is dizzying.
By allowing Kuwaiti batteries to remain in a hair-trigger posture without a unified, real-time “God’s eye view” of the battlespace, we essentially left our pilots to play Russian roulette with their own side’s missile batteries.
...
Three American F-15 Strike Eagles were downed by Kuwait's air defenses, friendly fire in a not-so-friendly neighborhood.
www.wearethemighty.com
I just highlighted in orange a key factor, on top of the electronic noise happening from so many devices operating in a small geographic locale.
krcrtv.com
