Humans [b]always[/b] act for a reason.  The "reason" may not make sense to anybody but the actor, it may be inarticulable, perhaps overwhelmingly complex, or even induced by insanity.  But there is [b]always[/b] a reason that causes action.  Even acts done in error, same as acts purposefully done, have their causative reasons.  

This ship was strafed repeatedly - at "knife fighting range". The pilots could read the name tags on the dead sailors on the decks if they had wanted. These weren't cruise missile attacks or GPS guided bombs dropped from 20K ft.

I can identify a ship's nationality at ten miles in clear weather. There are others who have better eyes and can pick them out farther away. They are different hull shapes, weapon and communication systems and even colors. Let alone the national ensign.

The repeated attacks were intentional for whatever reason.

May I recommend a reading of the book on the subject by the Vincennes skipper's book? "Wild Bill" Rogers wrote an excellent book on the attack. I heard him speak of the attack at the officers club in San Diego's 32nd street base. An excellent book on the whole story that I have yet to hear in the press.

Picking out the exact model of a 50 foot aircraft flying at 600 miles an hour head on is a bit diffent that identifying a ship sailing at 13 knots that is a few hundred feet long. The shooting at you part also alters your ability to identify them. Single seat, single jet, wing and tail fin shapes will narrow the list down really fast. The IS's aboard would have learned every aircraft sillouette in their basic "A" schooling. The ship's logs are kept by the OOD who might not know a B-52 from a Cesna.

The electonic emmissions of a ship can be read miles and miles away. Under EMCOM conditions the signatures are modfied but are still very difficult to hide from a half-ass trained operator. Radar can be detected at about twice it's effective range.

It doesn't take much training to see ships colors - there are many flavors of haze grey out there and it's pretty easy to learn the difference. We've been doing hull reconigition since before WWI no advance technology there.

Last year when we when though this I read through the survivors web site. I seem to remember that the radio shack took one of the first hits. The inverse square law of radio propagation comes into effect too where a smaller transmitter closer to the receive sight can overwhelm a larger transmitter farther away.

Communications were a bit different in the 60's where satellite comms weren't yet possible. HF and VHF circuits today are a hit and miss item across distances beyond visual range. We use SHF and EHF SatComm circuits for most traffic now. With VHF we could sometimes hit a shore station a thousand miles away but not another ship in our own battle group about 80 miles away.

"How could the electronic warfare folks aboard the USS Vincennes make such a colossal error in mistaking an Airbus for a F-14?"

Electronic warfare is a very complex and classified subject. I have pages worth of information on my Surface Warfare web site. In the Vincennes attack the Tico cruiser was on a rescue mission to assist an American frigate that was under active attack by the Iranians. Iranian Boghammer fast craft were making attacks on the frigate with small arms including RPG's when the Airbus launched from a mixed use civilian/military base. As the plane entered the air it was pinged with IFF and a military class 3 transponder replied. A hostile ID was assigned that track by another ship. Later when IFF interigated the aircraft it replied back with a civilian class 1 code. The Iranians had been known to in violation of law put multiple transponders on their aircraft. The contact was not up dated with the new civilian code. As the aircraft strayed out of the flight pattern and directly toward the Vincennes they didn't reply to muliple warnings broadcasted over several minutes. The word was given to the CO to blow the thing out of the sky at some range, but he let it close much closer before launching on it. I believe intercept was at 8 miles.

Typically the Standard ER will engage at 80 miles.

Torpedos require a weapons platform that can deliver them with in range. Normally large, heavy and slow ones. Air assets are much faster and efficient even with napalm. The aircraft might have been loaded for soft targets when dispatched into International waters for the attack on the American ship. No sane pilot attacks an [b]armed[/b] warship without a stand off weapon as the warship's large anti-aircraft missiles have a range many times that of a gravity bomb.

The reactions of the politicians both inside and out of the military puzzle me too. [whacko]

ICCS(Surface Warfare/Aviation Warfare Qualified) Paul "Former Surface Warfare Coodinator aboard the good ship USS Abraham Lincoln CVN-72 and radar division officer USS Carl Vinson CVN-70 (welcome back guys)"

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