• AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I understand “danger close.” I was in the USN. The term “Broken Arrow,” is generally used to describe a “lost, missing, or misplaced” nuclear weapon.

    What does Broken Arrow mean in this context? Are you literally dropping a nuke on your own heads? If so I would use the term Tango Uniform

    • Strykker
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      8 months ago

      Yeah pretty much calling airstrikes, or orbital artillery in on your current position cause you just got swarmed by like 5 huge armoured bugs or robots.

    • ours@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah “broken arrow” has two meanings. In the Air Force (or at least during the Vietnam war), it was the code phrase to urgently call in all available air assets as a unit was in danger of being overrun. And that meant dropping whatever they had with little coordination and high risk of friendly fire (like during the Battle of Ia Drang).