Operation Desert Storm

In a February 1991 incident involving "friendly fire" during the Persian Gulf War, two American servicemen were killed and six were wounded by missiles fired by an Apache helicopter. Concerns were raised about whether equipment failure caused the incident, whether the U.S. Army tried to mislead Congress about the Apache's performance, and whether the Army improperly released information to the press. This report contains a detailed discussion of the incident, including related events and contributing factors; an analysis of the Army's investigation of the incident; and responses to the specific concerns just mentioned.

GAO found that: (1) human error was the primary cause of the friendly fire incident, since the Apache battalion commander misread the grid coordinate on his navigation system and misidentified the target vehicles' location; (2) following its investigation, the Army relieved the battalion commander for failing to exercise command and control over the Apache team; (3) there was no evidence that equipment failure contributed to the incident; (4) there was no evidence that the Army attempted to mislead Congress about the Apaches' performance in the incident; (5) the Army Inspector General (IG) found no evidence of intentional misconduct on the part of Army officials who disclosed the commander's identity to the press; and (6) the Army IG believes that the Army regulation on releasing information on misconduct by individuals should be clarified.