News Iran naval 'friendly fire' incident kills 19 sailors in Gulf of Oman.

[Notebook]

Nineteen sailors have been killed and 15 others injured in an accident involving Iranian naval vessels in the Gulf of Oman, Iran's navy has said.
Iranian media reported that the support ship Konarak was hit by a new anti-ship missile being tested by the frigate Jamaran during an exercise on Sunday.
The Konarak had been putting targets out in the water and remained too close to one, according to the reports.
The navy said the ship was towed ashore and that an investigation had begun.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-52612511

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_support_vessel_Konarak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_frigate_Jamaran

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks like the test was a success, despite not sinking a ship from the target formation... :dry:



Of course, that was likely a bigger chain of errors to happen. When I heard the desparate calls late at night to cease firing, because a platoon of Marder tanks accidentally crossed the shooting range where another platoon was firing at the very realistic moving targets, that required a lot more than just one guy not reading the map correctly...

 

[Notebook]

Don't suppose we will hear the conclusions of the Iranian incident. Can only be taking the safeties off too soon?

Letting tanks wander across a firing range is, well...daft.

 

[Urwumpe]

Don't suppose we will hear the conclusions of the Iranian incident. Can only be taking the safeties off too soon?

Not alone. I suspect range safety was badly violated by both firing and catching ship - and both had more than one officer on board.

Letting tanks wander across a firing range is, well...daft.

Compared to the usual navigation skills of my batallion, this was almost precise. Those IFV are for example not supposed to reach 80° list angle in a lake - or being inside a lake in first place. And their sergeant did not have much humor being ordered to "starboard" that night.

 

[jedidia]

At first I was like "huh, I had no idea the Marder had amphibious capabilities...". Then I read on and fell out of my chair laughing. :lol:

 

[Notebook]

Looks like the Marder is as dangerous to its own troops as the enemy, judging by what happened to the chap on the right at 24 seconds in...

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks like the Marder is as dangerous to its own troops as the enemy, judging by what happened to the chap on the right at 24 seconds in...

Marder IFV - YouTube

Well, it never was a very popular vehicle among the Panzergrenadiere. :lol:


It speaks letters, that it took until the 1A3 variant, that the worst dangers to its own crew got fixed.



I more liked the Jaguar 1A3 tanks we had... those had been agile beasts and had been quite comfortable inside.

 

[Notebook]

Well, a tank with a periscope!

Interesting re-load mechanism. Does seem to hit its target every time...

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, a tank with a periscope!

Interesting re-load mechanism. Does seem to hit its target every time...

Well, it had a VERY good chance to hit its target compared to the Leopard 1 tanks and a larger range than the Leopard 2 tanks...



Still, it was able to miss its target, especially, if the gunner was already too confident to hit the target. One warrant officer at our company was able to miss a standing target with a MILAN, sadly it was the only live MILAN we had for training this time due to earlier budget cuts. :lol:

 

[Notebook]

I'm guessing its a wire-guided missile?

 

[Urwumpe]

I'm guessing its a wire-guided missile?

Yes, wire-guided, with the more modern SACLOS. Easier to aim and control, but prone to IR jamming technology. Also you can't drive while the missile is underway, obviously, since this would destroy the wire.

 

[Dickie]

Don't suppose we will hear the conclusions of the Iranian incident. Can only be taking the safeties off too soon?

Letting tanks wander across a firing range is, well...daft.

I suspect it will be incorrect drills from the firing unit. Firing ASCM with other shipping nearby always has the potential for hitting the wrong target especially if there is no datalink to the missile.


At least for Harpoon, to try and disguise the firing unit it is common for the firing unit to not actually track the target itself and remain radar silent, instead receiving targetting information from the third party unit. The missile will then be set to fly via a waypoint away from the firing unit before going active on its own radar. At this point, it identifies the closest return to where it expects the target to be and goes for that - this can easily be the wrong target. The third party unit also reports all other shipping around the target to enable the firing unit to choose a course for the missile to minimise this but it is not fool-proof, even for a proficient force with modern radars and command systems to maintain an accurate plot and datalinks to transfer the targetting details.


This is not to minimise the tragedy involved. The IRIN are regarded as a professional navy, and as has already been mentioned live fire exercises are not without risk. Ultimately though, if you don't conduct them in training you increase the risk of failure under real conditions.