# Friendly Fire?



## Wildcat (Aug 12, 2005)

Here's a little incident that happened in Oz today.

Bomb damage caused by a US fighter during an exercise in northern Australia was a reminder of the inherent risks of military training, Defence Minister Robert Hill says.

The bomb, dropped by a US Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet, damaged facilities on the Delamere Air Weapons Range in the Northern Territory on Thursday when it struck the ground near a building.

No-one was injured.

Senator Hill said the mishap was under investigation.

"We certainly regard it as a serious incident," Senator Hill told reporters in Darwin.

"But these things do occur in military training with live ammunition.

"When an incident like this does occur it is thoroughly investigated, and in this instance there has been an investigation by both the Australian authorities and the American authorities to ensure it doesn't happen again.

"I think it's a reminder that there are inherent risks in any military training."

The bomb exploded near a building on the weapons range, some 130km south of Katherine.

The Japan-based US Marines are conducting an annual training exercise, Southern Frontier, at RAAF Base Tindal, 300km south of Darwin, involving 500 troops, 15 F/A-18 Hornets and two KC-130 Hercules.

All bombing operations on the range have ceased as a result of the incident.

Prime Minister John Howard said he had received an initial report into the incident.

"Things like this will always happen, we hope not very frequently and we hope not any more dangerously," Mr Howard told Southern Cross radio.

"But the idea that you can conduct any kind of military exercise without some kind of potential for mishap is unrealistic."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/050811/2/vguc.html

I Didn't know the Yanks were mad at us!


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## Nonskimmer (Aug 12, 2005)

Thank god no one got killed.


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## Wildcat (Aug 12, 2005)

I'll say. This isn't the first time this has happened up North, a few years ago a dummy missile fell off an RAAF F/A 18 over Darwin and ploughed straight through some unlucky persons car! Luckily they weren't in it at the time.


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## Pisis (Aug 12, 2005)

yeah. good no-one get hurt.


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## Nonskimmer (Aug 12, 2005)

Yeah, it can happen when people are careless. A few years back a Canadian frigate on the west coast sent a chaff rocket into someone's garage. No one was home at the time.  

A couple of heads rolled for that one.


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## evangilder (Aug 12, 2005)

It doesn happen occasionally, unfortunately. It good that no one was hurt though.


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## marconi (Aug 12, 2005)

You may have heard about Ukrainian S-300 that shot down Russian plane which was flying from Israel.


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