RAF – The Worlds Worst Airforce?!!!

Breaking News from the Beeb:

Bombs missed Kosovo targets

Only 40% of bombs hit intended targets

The majority of the bombs dropped by British troops during the Kosovo conflict missed their targets, an investigation by the BBC and industry magazine Flight International has revealed.
A classified Ministry of Defence report revealed the accuracy rate of missiles fired by the Royal Air Force was just 40% – and in the case of some bombs, as low as 2%.

The new information indicates that collateral damage, civilian casualties and damage to property might have been worse than previously thought.

The revelation followed a news conference on 10 February where the MoD told journalists the Kosovo bombing campaign had been the best ever conducted by the RAF.

But the conference was continued in closed session the next day where a different picture emerged, the BBC has discovered.

‘Worst performance’

Then a senior MoD analyst admitted the precision rate was only 40% and only 2% of the old-fashioned thousand-pound dumb bombs had hit their targets.

But it is thought the high altitude from which the attacks were made affected the weapons’ accuracy.

John Spellar: “Unaccounted for doesn’t mean they didn’t hit”

Many bombs were dropped from a height of 30,000 feet in order to minimise the risk to RAF pilots.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Armed Forces Minister John Spellar said the public was not lied to over claims that the bombing campaign was highly successful.

“We were actually getting extremely accurate results,” he said. “A lot of them were recorded as bombs not accounted for and that’s absolutely right.

“What they were recording was actual observable direct hits and in cloud that’s quite difficult.

“Unaccounted for doesn’t mean they didn’t hit, what it means is that we can’t say with absolute assurance that they did hit.

Cover-up claim

He denied the bombing had been indiscriminate and said there was little collateral damage.

Mr Spellar also dismissed claims that the government had tried to cover up the report.

“We produce a confidential report which we don’t expect to be leaked and we’d rather it wasn’t while we look at the issues that we are dealing with,” he said.

BBC defence reporter Andrew Gilligan said the Kosovo bombing campaign was the RAF’s worst performance in its three most recent engagements.

The MoD said better equipment was being bought to address the problem, but some of the new weapons may not arrive until 2006.

The MoD had tried to prevent Flight International from printing the story, serving the magazine with a “D” notice forbidding publication.

Discuss.

KZ