U.S. F-16 drops dummy bomb off firing range in Aomori Pref

I am not worried it ignites anti-base acitivities over there. Misawa City in Aomori is known friendly to U.S. Air Force Base there. Both parties are constantly making efforts in promoting friendship between them. People there know the city has grown bigger owing to the base. If the same thing happens in Okinawa, anti-base movement will easily flare up.

 If the same thing happens in Okinawa, anti-base movement will easily flare up.

When was the last time Misawa was totally destroyed in a war? If you understand that, then you might understand why some of the people here get ticked off at incidents like this.

Misawa City in Aomori is known friendly to U.S. Air Force Base there. Both parties are constantly making efforts in promoting friendship between them. People there know the city has grown bigger owing to the base. 

However, if the folks here would take a page from Misawa and acknowledge that ALL the areas around the bases have benefited greatly FROM hosting the bases and worked WITH the people and not against them, things could be much,much, better!

It is good to the that the U.S. Air Force is constantly training.... sure they'll have accidents, every military in the world does. But without proper training there will be even more and if and when the day comes Japan will have the support of a Trained U.S. Air Force.

New title:

US Bombs Japan! Claims it was training accident.

/s

It was completely a training accident but can't be ignored because it happens again. Unlucky person may get one someday.

5 km from the target area is a fairly big screwup. I suspect it was either a rookie pilot or one of the higher ranked wing officers who don’t fly as much. Maybe the Wing Commander!

Could’ve killed someone.

Nope, it's a dedicated range, reserved for this kind of stuff. Good to avoid in future, but seriously, that's why there are restricted areas.

Luckily there were no people in the area that break the rules and encroached. This is why there are agreements in place and reviewed, discussed with all local representatives in the area which continue to this day. No Misawa is not like Okinawa, it did suffer heavy bombings during the war, but continues to be positive and do not wish nor want the anti-US hostiles in Aomori prefecture. OUT and STAY OUT. This is our home and we like it that way.

sure they'll have accidents, every military in the world does.

But the US appears to do it so much better than other militaries.

In Iraq, UK forces came to consider US friendly fire to be an occupational hazard.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/22/american-troops-friendly-fire-iraq

But without proper training there will be even more

Time they started with the proper training, then.

Maybe let them practice dropping rolled-up paper balls into a wastepaper based at home, and let them gradually work up to literally dropping bombshells in other folks' countries?

Invalid CSRF

“According to the Aomori prefectural government, the dropped object was found about 5 kilometers west of the bombing range.”

It's not unusual to have restricted access beyond the bombing range or gunnery range. Bombing patterns can extend further beyond the range, eg 10NM NW of the range.

The F16 operate within a 200NM (IIRC) radius of the base....

But, happy to wait until the investigation is completed.

Sh1mon M4sada, the area where the dud bomb fell was private property on the other side of a lake. It is a damn good thing that nobody got killed in this accident. It is great and all that the people of Misawa and the US military get along, but they have to be careful not to screw up that relationship. A few more "accidents" like this and the one where fuel tanks were jettisoned into Lake Ogawara last year and you might see people begin to protest.

So long as humans and machines that break are involved, things like this are going to happen. Look at all the Japanese cops leaving guns in the convenience store toilet. I'd be more concerned about cover-ups and a lack of contrition than a non-zero number of accidents happening.

I am assuming of course that these planes are not flying around carrying live bombs.

am I missing something a dummy bomb was dropped on a firing range, firing ranges are donagerous places ammunition mortar rounds grenades are all used there during training. I mean your training for war there are always going to be risks. JSDF have had their fair share of crashes stray mortar rounds etc , why isnt we hear of protests from local governement when that happens!?

5 km from the target area is a fairly big screwup.

When you're miles up and going hundreds of kilometers per hour, it could be difference of a few seconds or inches.

am I missing something a dummy bomb was dropped on a firing range,

You're missing the fact that it was not dropped on a firing range, it was dropped outside the firing range, on private property. And while it couldn't explode, 200kg dropped from a height ('miles up', according to darknuts) packs quite a punch.

JSDF have had their fair share of crashes stray mortar rounds etc , why isnt we hear of protests from local governement when that happens!?

How many of those JSDF crashes, stray mortar rounds etc., happened in the USA? On private property?

When you're miles up and going hundreds of kilometers per hour, it could be difference of a few seconds or inches.

All the more reason to be careful to the point of obsession. And start that proper training, for safety's sake.

Invalid CSRF

The press is ignoring the elephant in the room. Look at the map. This is not just anywhere, folks.

Why is no-one mentioning that five kilometers west of the bombing range is not just 'uninhabited land'? In fact it is just south of the nuclear reprocessing plant at Rokkasho Mura. What if an inert thing that size from an aircraft coming in at a different angle landed on one of the buildings or tanks there? Plutonium stored there by the ton... .

Dummy Exercise 101 : A Dummy bomb dropped by a Dummy pilot

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

Just luck that it fell where it did.

And then we also have this: 'Sky-high selfies: Japan warns US over 'outrageous' antics of military pilots'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/08/sky-high-selfies-japan-warns-us-over-outrageous-antics-of-military-pilots

In Iraq,

Iraq has nothing to do with this story, cleo.

As you love to say

Invalid CSRF

A Dummy bomb dropped by a Dummy pilot

Would so love to see Sceptical try to fly an F-16. No, strike that, I don't want to see anyone killed.

Would so love to see Sceptical say that to the pilot's face.

When was the last time Misawa was totally destroyed in a war?

Misawa was formerly the site of an Imperial Navy Air Service base from 1941 and used as a training location for the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was completely obliterated by heavy US Naval bombardment in 1945 and unexploded ordinance from WW2 is constantly being uncovered during construction projects.

How many of those JSDF crashes, stray mortar rounds etc., happened in the USA? On private property?

The US military has all sorts of accidents on mainland USA. Military and commercial planes drop stuff all - the - time onto private property there.

Nuclear bombs, chaff, rockets, flares, dummy bombs.

https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-bomb-accident-goldsboro-nc-swamp-2017-5

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/us/air-force-jet-dummy-bombs-florida-trnd/index.html (CNN has photo of B-52, but an A-10 dropped 3 bombs) Nice.

https://www.krwg.org/post/military-plane-drops-flares-over-cliff-gila-valley flares onto houses and farms.

Rockets on the road: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/09/10/air-force-investigating-how-white-phosphorus-rockets-ended-tucson-road.html

Don't worry Japan. The accidents aren't just there, but everywhere any military is located.

OK. This is a big one right... could have been a live Nuke ?! right....

Perhaps, the US needs to completely pull out of Japan.. stop providing anything to Japan since anything US related always receives complaints, leave Japan to its own self-determination. Japan is a Holiday destination for US Forces anyway, right ?

So many Complaints for such a non-event... I'd hate to think what would have been said of a Pilot who in a dire situation purposely avoided escaping his plane in order to do his best to crash in a less populated location. In such a situation, he should be considered a "Hero" ... and not a Villain.

I think a lot of people here, do not understand what it is like to be a Military Pilot.

Iraq has nothing to do with this story, cleo.

Not Iraq: the US military. Spreading friendly fire wherever they go.

As you love to say

Invalid CSRF

I do not love to say it; I hate to say it. I simply paste into my post what (almost invariably) appears at the top of the page when I press 'Post', in the hopes that the JT IT wizards will notice and fix it.

The US military has all sorts of accidents on mainland USA.

So what? They can do what they like in their own garden. The problem is them coming to Japan and acting like they own the place.

The accidents aren't just there, but everywhere the US military is located.

There, fixed that for you.

Invalid CSRF

@Serrano

> A Dummy bomb dropped by a Dummy pilot

Would so love to see Sceptical try to fly an F-16. No, strike that, I don't want to see anyone killed.

Would so love to see Sceptical say that to the pilot's face.

I assumed the exercise was a  low altitude bomb deliveries.  Low Angle Low Drag and High Drag (LALD/HD)

In F-16C visual bomb delivery. The expected variation around the estimated average miss distances:

The predicted 25.3 and 17.8 meter miss distances are average miss distances. Some bombs will land closer to the target and some much farther away. Very few will land at exactly 25.3 or 17.8 meters from the intended target.

Points to ponder:

5 kilometers= 5000 meters

5000 / 25.3 = 197.6%

The pilot missed 197%. Even the least experienced second lieutenants have considerable by the time they arrive at an operational squadron. Much of the experience they have was gained in the Replacement Training Unit (RTU) where they had their initial exposure to all types of tactical flying in the same type of aircraft they eventually fly when they report to an operational squadron – which is the F-15E. This pilot is already flying F-16 which means he already had passed his (RTU) experience.

The pilot is risking the lives of civilians in peacetime. He should be dropping dummy bombs on the ocean targeting buoys otherwise, he should be dropping dummies somewhere in Guam or the Marianas. Besides, he must have a new call sign by now, "5 KILO DUMMIE".

@Cleao

Not Iraq: the US military. Spreading friendly fire wherever they go.

Sure, only the US military has friendly fire accidents... Maybe you should take your blinders off.

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

The area surroundiung Rokkasho test range, where the dummy was dropped is mostly closed off and uninhabited. Both the US and Japanese military use the aerial target range and the SDF ordnance proving ground is also located there.

While unfortuante, a bomb going 5km off target is not that much of a deviation when you consider that a fighter jet flying at near supersonic speeds can travel 5km in less than 10 seconds.

So by that logic, if the local primary school is 2 km away, how quick? And the if the high level nuclear waste at nuclear reprocessing plant at Rokkasho Village is 10 km away, that's less than 20 seconds... or am I way off base?

While unfortuante, a bomb going 5km off target is not that much of a deviation when you consider that a fighter jet flying at near supersonic speeds can travel 5km in less than 10 seconds.

Obviously you have no clue about dropping a bomb and the instruments used in it. What’s the point of dropping a 400 meters radius destructive force bomb on a specific targets if you are saying 5000 meters (5 km) is not much of a deviation. Pls. read my first comment.

Obviously you have no clue about dropping a bomb and the instruments used in it. What’s the point of dropping a 400 meters radius destructive force bomb on a specific targets if you are saying 5000 meters (5 km) is not much of a deviation. Pls. read my first comment.

I am aware of the instruments and precision involved in modern bombing techniques. However we're still not sure whether the devation was on the X axis or the Y axis, which makes abig difference. I've seen materiel airdrops land over 10km of PI, and artillery more than 5km off target. These incidents definitely should not happen, but the error could have been caused by anything from a grid plotting error to ground observer error. I think its too early to blame the pilots without further information.

what'd you expect from a dummy bomb?

only the US military has friendly fire accidents...

No, not only the US. Just that they're very good at it.

No, not only the US. Just that they're very good at it.

Maybe you should actually do some research into something you are claiming instead of just showing your blatant hatred for the US. Plenty of other nations are 'good at it' (not really seeing the humor though). The UK is also plenty 'good at it', as are many other nations, but why point that out when you can act like the US somehow practices to be 'good at' tragically and accidentally killing friendly forces. Did I get that right?