Forum: F-16 News

That is a nice tight pattern

About the comment in that image, does the Viper have a hi/lo ROF with the M61? I was under the impression it was 6,000 RPM all the time.

Hill says it learned from accident
Pilot misidentified the target when he shot at 2 soldiers

By Stephen Speckman
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, June 26, 2008 12:03 a.m. MDT

The Hill Air Force Base pilot who the Air Force said this week accidentally shot at two soldiers earlier this year is a major with more than 800 flying hours and was scheduled to deploy last month to Balad Air Base in Iraq with the 34th Fighter Squadron's 120-day rotation.

But the unnamed pilot with Hill's 388th Fighter Wing on April 8 in an instant misidentified a target 1.5 miles away from the intended hit during nighttime training exercises on the Utah Test and Training Range. In the next moment he fired six 20mm high-explosive incendiary rounds into a rented sport utility vehicle occupied by two soldiers from Fort Lewis, Wash.

"I don't have detailed information on our pilots' accuracy with the 20mm cannon but can say that one incident like this is too many," Hill's 1st Lt. Beth Woodward said Wednesday.

The soldiers escaped the vehicle with only scrapes and abrasions, then ran to a nearby ravine for cover, calling in the strike and for the mission to be aborted, Woodward said. Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Piek said Wednesday it's fortunate that "we're talking about a serious training accident and not something worse."

The pilot, whom Hill officials would not name, was grounded until the close of an investigation, which was announced this week. Woodward said the pilot was "current" and qualified to fly the training sortie last April.

"Subsequently, appropriate administrative actions and changes to the pilot's flight qualifications have been taken," Woodward said. "Additional classroom, simulator and flight training is required to ensure the individual is qualified for wing missions."
Investigators concluded the pilot momentarily lost visual "reference" with his intended target. He was taking part in an evening close-air support training sortie when he misidentified a target while using night vision goggles.

Woodward said the pilot's wingman used the F-16's Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod, a laser spot tracker that speeds up target detection.

"The mishap pilot's wingman correctly illuminated the intended target during this mission with the laser marker," she said.

The investigation found the pilot had rolled into a strafing run, came out of the roll and missed his target over the UTTR by 1.5 miles, instead firing on the two soldiers who were part of the training operations taking place.

"In the end, he was trying to make the strafing pass work and most likely was concentrating on his flight parameters more than the target area itself," Woodward said.

The investigation also led to an assessment of local training procedures and an "evaluation of air-to-ground coordination during night training operations" at the UTTR.

Col. Scott Dennis, 388th commander, said close-air support missions are complex and that "valuable lessons" have been learned from the incident.

"We have since implemented several changes to our tactics and procedures in order to prevent another occurrence," Dennis said in a statement. "We are fully committed to keeping the range a safe place to practice the skill sets needed to bring air power to the enemy."


Source: http://deseretnews.com:80/article/1,514 ... 07,00.html

Pilot faulted in errant bombing of soldiers

By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Oct 7, 2008 14:09:31 EDT

An investigation into the errant bombing of soldiers in an SUV last April said the pilot broke two close-air support rules requiring the pilot to identify his target.

Five 20mm cannon rounds struck the driver´s side of a Chevrolet Suburban, with one round hitting the truck about one foot behind the driver´s door. Miraculously, the soldiers sustained comparatively minor injuries.

The mistake happened April 8 during a nighttime close-air support training mission at the Utah Test and Training Range, Hill Air Force Base.

The soldiers were on the range to practice calling in close-air support strikes. They were not working with the jet that bombed their SUV.

At the stick of the F-16 was Maj. John O. Erickson, then the assistant director of operations for the 34th Fighter Squadron of the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill.

Erickson was the flight lead of two F-16s practicing nighttime close-air support and aerial refueling. His wingman was Col. Kevin Schneider, vice commander of the 388th.

An investigation ordered by the commander of 12th Air Force, Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, concluded that Erickson, who fired the rounds, likely confused his intended target, an armored personnel vehicle, with the Chevrolet Suburban, which was parked with its headlights on, about three miles from the target. Schneider was not faulted.

The 12th Air Force refused to release a copy of the investigation report, which Seip approved May 27. Air Force Times obtained a copy of the 178-page investigation Monday through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The two soldiers in the Chevrolet, 1st Lt. Jared R. Cox and Sgt. 1st Class James T. Walker III, both of the 5th Brigade´s 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment Fire Support Team at Fort Lewis, Wash., were awaiting approval to drive away from an observation post, the report said.

Walker sustained a dislocated shoulder as he ran for cover in case of a second attack. A small piece of shrapnel hit Cox´s left hand and he sustained abrasions to the left side of his head and left hand.

"Just as I bring [the radio microphone] up to my mouth, the vehicle explodes," Cox told investigators.

Walker recalled, "I immediately realized what we had been hit by the F-16 20mm gun and told Lt. Cox to turn off the vehicle lights so if the wingman was coming in to strafe, we wouldn´t present a target."

Before anyone could fire again, the joint terminal attack controller at the observation point, Tech. Sgt. Matthew E. Lindmark of the 5th Air Support Operations Squadron, Fort Lewis, realized the mistake and told the F-16s to abort their assault.

Source: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/ ... s_100708w/

'Real-world strafed'
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
By JESSE FRUHWIRTH
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau

HILL AIR FORCE BASE -- On a clear night in April, 1st Lt. Jared Cox and his fellow soldiers were ending their duties an hour early because a team of fighter jets wouldn't be training that night as planned.

Cox and another soldier got held up and did not follow the convoy back to the oasis. They were to return in their own SUV through the rugged terrain of Tooele County.

Moments later, an F-16 with the call sign Grumpy 21, made an error.

"ABORT, ABORT, ABORT. ... Friendlies got real-world strafed," was the frantic message that went out over the radios, but Cox and Sgt. 1st Class James T. Walker III weren't hearing the radio.

They were bleeding, confused, and were trying to get out of their targeted Chevy Suburban. They were taking cover from any other jets that might fire on them next and yelling into the desert night that they had been hit.

That information comes from a 178-page report obtained by the Standard-Examiner through a Freedom of Information Act request placed in June.

The report details how and why a Hill Air Force Base pilot missed his target and hit a vehicle idling near a hilltop observation point about 2.5 miles to the east of the practice target.

The pilot flying Grumpy 21 was Maj. John O. Erickson, assistant director of operations for the 34th Fighter Squadron, the flight lead on a two-ship F-16 training mission.

The report indicates that Erickson has sole responsibility for the error, as Hill Air Force Base public affairs officials said in June.

However, the Air Force would not at that time release the report itself nor provide the names of the individuals involved.

The Air Force owed about $43,000 to AVIS rental car service after the incident, Cox suffered injuries to his face and hand due from glass shrapnel and Walker dislocated a shoulder, the report states.

Cox and Walker were stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state.

The night of the incident, Cox, Walker and a convoy of other vehicles were to leave early from the Utah Test and Training Range's Hornet Tower Observation Point -- a structure 15 miles north of Interstate 80 and west of Great Salt Lake. A fighter team from Boise had canceled plans to train on the range due to weather conditions at their base.

"I was excited. This would be the first night I got to bed before midnight in a week-and-a-half or so," Cox told investigators.

Separated from the other vehicles, Cox reached for his radio to gain clearance so he and Walker could drive across the range.

"I had the radio in my hand when the Suburban exploded with a blinding flash. The glass from the driver's side window hit my left hand and face and knocked me over," Cox is quoted as saying in the report.

"At this point, we heard the second aircraft coming around in our direction. SFC Walker yelled to get out."

The Suburban had been hit by five 20 mm incendiary bullets from Erickson's F-16.

Erickson's intended target, referred to in official Air Force documents as "the coffin," is a set of roads whose outline forms the shape of a coffin, or ice cream cone.

The length of the coffin is about 1.5 miles, making targets set in the middle easily visible and identifiable from the air, according to Erickson's comments in the report.

"The coffin/ice cream cone, as they call it in the tapes, is so easy to see it's ridiculous," Erickson told investigators.

Another part of the report indicates the Hornet tower was well illuminated with safety lights, including "several (infrared) beacons, glow sticks and vehicle head-lights."

Three previous strafing runs at the coffin target were performed successfully that night and Erickson led one of the runs.

On the fourth run, however, Erickson confused the well-lit hilltop observation tower with the coffin-shape on the valley floor. He told investigators that the view through his night-vision goggles looked "wacky" but that he thought he was on target and shot anyway.

He told investigators his altitude was lower than ideal at the beginning of the fourth run, which would rush his recovery. He told investigators that he may have been focusing too much on compensating for his imperfect flight pattern and not enough on his target.

The report said Erickson missed three obvious signs: His intended target was supposed to be 15 degrees below the horizon, but the hilltop where the SUV was parked was only 3 degrees; a targeting system did not have an icon in the area where Erickson shot; and Erickson at the very least should have seen through his night vision goggles that he was shooting at a hilltop and not a valley floor.

The investigator noted that Erickson was nondefensive and did not evade questions during the investigation.

The report released this week had a few portions redacted, including the recommendations section.

In June, HAFB officials said Erickson had been subjected to remedial training and was temporarily grounded per the recommendations in the report.

Calls to the respective base public affairs offices requesting comments from Erickson, Cox and Walker were not returned.

source: http://www.standard.net/live/news/145256/