A deadly, prolonged attack on a Doctors Without Borders trauma center in Kunduz, Afghanistan, was caused in part by a malfunctioning satellite radio that could not receive targeting information aboard the Lockheed Martin [LMT] AC-130U gunship.
Army Gen. Joseph Votel, chief of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Friday the October incident in which 42 medical personnel, patients and other civilians were killed, was caused by a combination of human error and equipment failure.
“An AC-130 gunship aircrew, in support of a U.S. special forces element that was supporting an Afghan partner ground force misidentified and struck the Doctors Without Borders trauma center,” Votel said. “The investigation determined that all members of both the ground force and the AC-130 aircrew were unaware that the aircraft was firing on a medical facility throughout the engagement.”
“The investigation ultimately concluded that this tragic incident was caused by a combination of human errors compounded by process and equipment failures.”
Votel said Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is looking into the performance of the aircraft’s avionics and communication systems to identify any malfunctions. Without specifying the exact model radio in question, Votel said he was not aware of other similar communication failures with C-130s, which are workhorses for air support missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
“In my estimation, this was not a systemic problem,” Votel said. “This was a failure at that point of this specific radio system and antenna that is designed to receive data and transmit data to the ground. I am unaware that this is a systemic problem.”
Responding to calls for air support from the SOF ground commander, the AC-130 launched from its base more than an hour earlier than planned. The crew took off without receiving all “preparatory information” normally disseminated before a mission, including the location of designated no-strike areas, Votel said. The Doctors Without Borders trauma center was on a no-strike list of protected buildings.
Their ability to receive this information while in flight was lost when one of their satellite radios failed, which prevented the aircraft from receiving digital information “that would have told them of no-strike areas and other things and then would have allowed them to send a picture to the ground,” Votel said.
Shortly after arriving on station above the firefight in Kunduz, the aircraft was fired at by a shoulder-launched guided anti-aircraft missile, or man-portable air defense (MANPAD) system. The aircrew took evasive action to avoid the incoming missile, which placed them several miles from the city center where the Taliban-controlled building was located.
“As the aircraft got up on station, it was engaged by a surface-to-air missile,” Votel said. “They followed the proper procedures, got off station, and then were given the grids…The angle at which they were trying to acquire that caused the system to come up with a wrong location.”
There the aircrew received coordinates of the building hosting enemy combatants and plotted it in their navigation system. The system erroneously directed them to an open field, which was obviously not the intended target relayed by joint tactical air controllers on the ground, Votel said. The aircrew set the aircraft’s sights on the hospital because it met the general physical description it had of the target building relayed over radio by the ground force.
All of the AC-130U’s weapon systems were brought to bear on the hospital, Votel said. The aircraft carries a BAE Systems 40mm cannon, a General Dynamics [GD] 25mm GAU-12 Equalizer rotary cannon and a massive M102 105mm light howitzer.
“The investigation found that throughout the engagement that followed, the ground-force commander and the aircrew mistakenly believed that aircrew and aircraft were firing on the intended target,” Votel said.