Yes - but the implications of reassigning the number immediately to another contact seems something that should have been noticed in the design phase.
> Vincennes assigned her the tracking number 4474; Sides assigned her 4131. Aegis unified the contacts under the number 4131. 4474 was then available for re-use, so Aegis assigned it to a US A-6 bomber, which happened to be descending.
> But he didn't realize that its tracking number had changed. He thought it was still tracking number 4474,
Global commercial flight traffic averages around 100k flights per day. I don't know what fraction is within the radar range of a big ship in a busy area, but maybe 10k? So it's not trivial to avoid reuse within a day while still having 4-digit numbers. Especially when contacts are assigned numbers independently by multiple ships and then reconciled.
> I don't know what fraction is within the radar range of a big ship in a busy area maybe 10k? So it's not trivial to avoid reuse within a day while still having 4-digit numbers
So in the design phase that should come up as an issue and you would surely use 5 digit numbers
> Vincennes assigned her the tracking number 4474; Sides assigned her 4131. Aegis unified the contacts under the number 4131. 4474 was then available for re-use, so Aegis assigned it to a US A-6 bomber, which happened to be descending.
> But he didn't realize that its tracking number had changed. He thought it was still tracking number 4474,