Friendly Fire System Failed in Patriot Incident

A British Tornado fighter jet shot down by a U.S. Patriot missile on March 23, 2003 near the Kuwait-Iraq border suffered a failure of the electronic system that was supposed to protect the plane from friendly fire, the Press Association reported today (see GSN, April 26).

The Patriot battery fired after it “misidentified” the aircraft as an enemy antiradiation missile, according to a report summarizing findings by a Royal Air Force Board of Inquiry. The Tornado’s pilot and navigator were killed in the incident.

Several contributing factors were also cited in the report, including the failure of the Tornado’s “identification friend or foe” system. 

The Patriot’s “wide classification criteria” for antiradiation missiles and its rules of engagement also contributed to the accident, the report states. Those criteria were “not sufficiently robust to prevent a friendly aircraft without a functioning IFF system being classified as an antiradiation missile,” according the report (Gavin Cordon, Press Association, May 14).

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