That’s helpful. Thanks! Paired with the targeting pod and some patience, this bomb is a force to be reckoned with in MP servers like Blue Flag. It’s a tad unfair, really.
FYI, IIRC, this was a AGM-154.
Not a good day in HQ USEUCOM…albeit much worse in Serbia.
EDIT: Contrary to several comments posted about this incident on YouTube, we were targeting the bridge, not the train. Pure tragic accident.
Solution is proper defending forces, depending on what you’re trying to do. SA-15s will eat up AGM-154s. These tend not to get used because they’re brutal on helicopters and CAS aircraft, so you end up with the Bug and the JSOW dominating the scenario.
Unfortunately proof that we have a lot of misplaced faith with precision weapons in the real world. War has never been a clean affair and never will be.
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Agreed entirely.
Precision weapons assist in hitting a target, not validating it.
Apparently on that sortie they didn’t recognize the train (the video is sped up by 4.7x to factor that out before judging) and the resulting explosion’s smoke cloud blocked the view of the train, so they did a follow up attack when they saw the bridge was still up.
Listed weapon was a AGM-130 from an F-15E.
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Confirmed, not AGM-154.
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Looks like the bridge was rebuilt.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8760904,22.0868116,138a,35y,323.62h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
Even a monument to NATO aggression…
(“Spomenik NATO agresiji”)
Wheels
I’ll see if I can track it down, but the Indian strike into Pakistan a year or two ago against a terrorist camp was with a SPICE bomb (Israeli update on the Popeye, basically EO/GPS). The official line was they blew up a terrorist camp, the learned analysis was that they bombed the woods line a ways away due to some targeting issues.
Found it! Pretty much exactly on point with the discussion about terrain height.
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That’s one big oops.
Wheels
I recall reading this some time ago. It’s a good eye opening article. Leaves me with a thought on CCIP, perhaps for a new thread.
I always thought it was a 154. I stand corrected.
Thanks @Wes and @Franze.
Other than the weapon nomenclature, I remember that day well. I was in the daily SACEUR VTC. Right when it started, JFACC actual interrupted the normal flow and with something like “I’ve got something I need to tell everybody right now.” He went trough a brief explanation and then showed the whole video with the audio. When that train appeared at the last second you could hear the gasps and sharp inhales (I was one of the latter) in the room and from the VTC. It was a sick feeling. There was stunned silence for a few heartbeats before the JFACC continued. Even to this day, over 20 years later, I still get a pit in my stomach thinking about it.
…anyway, wrong weapon. My bad. Sorry I derailed the thread.
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Don’t be. Sea stories such as this are what we all come here for, don’t we guys? 
That’s because you are a human with a good heart. A robot, or a “I’m just following orders” martinet type wouldn’t feel that. So feel good about feeling bad about that 
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Today I had a look at JDAM for the first time. Did some tests to figure out how they work and then played one of the stock Hornet missions (night attack on a bunker in Bandar Abbas). The mission was pretty atmospheric with a lot of flights in support, but boy was the attack itself anti-climatic 
Fly within 20 NM of target at Angels 25, push pickle and go home.
Naw, I will probably never buy into the post-Cold War stuff…
You need to put SAMs out there that can just reach you, so that using the JDAM is a game of chicken.
Will you risk being shot down to hit the pickle button?
Then you get the JSOW and encounter the same problem…
So you add enemy fighters that don’t take kindly to your presence.
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So what I am reading here is that I should rather fly the fighter or SEAD escort missions, as this guys have a lot more fun
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Yep. That’s pretty much the whole point. The targeting gang in CVIC are like the Scrubbing Bubbles commercial, “We work hard so you don’t have to.”
That is certainly one definition of “fun” 
Actually, when carefully planned and executed correctly, SEAD is nearly as uneventful as JDAM missions since you should be shooting at the target (in PP mode) while still outside of the SAM envelope.
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