Like I mentioned, I've bombed on Red Rio, but with training ordnance or heavyweight inerts, never did heavyweight lives and can't remember if they were authorized there. Strafe was always an option, but with strafe, you'd have to be pointed at the known OP location if you are going to hit friendlies, which would be odd i would think. But nothing is an impossibility in these types of incidents.
About 15 years ago, a few of us frome my unit were sitting on OP Red Pointlocated in South TAC on the Barry Goldwater range, for a day and night of working CAS training. Some visiting F-16s from DM showed up with lives, and on the BMGR there's only one place on each SAT range where heavyweight lives can be dropped, known as HE "High Explosive" hill. It looks like (and is) moonscape dust, having been bombed so many times, and has large white arrows at each cardinal direction on the ground, pointing to the hill.....easily seen from the air. At our location, it's well east of us, but still in visual range.
The F-16 flight shows up and checks in, situation update is completed for a high altitude drop, above where we can see them, 9 line is passed, and enhanced talk on is given. Lead confirms everything we describe to him. They're at high altitude in a wide wheel so can hear them but can't see them. They pass their fighter to fighter amongst themselves and call ready. We advise them to call 15 secs out, standard. They call that, we reply with call in with FAC area and target in sight. Lead does, and he's cleared hot. He calls off hot, and watching the target visually nothing happens.....until a high order detonation occurs west of us, outside the range boundary but in desolate desert. Pretty unexpected. All boxes had been checked, all reasonable confirmations done given the limitations of the employment that day, and still the wrong DMPI was IDd.
