Aircraft Targeting Issue

[plloyd1010]

Rule 15.11 states that: "Aircraft may potentially attack any hexes on the board as they have unlimited range. However, they are prohibited from attacking unspotted enemy pieces located in limiting terrain and all hidden units (see Optional Rules)."

One of us has always interpreted this as meaning that only enemy units that are spotted by a friendly leader may be attacked by aircraft, along the lines of the existing spotting rules for OBA bombardments. The other player, interprets this rules as meaning that it is the attacking aircraft that is doing the spotting, not a friendly leader on the map board. Hence a unit in CLEAR terrain may be attacked by aircraft without needing to be spotted by a friendly leader.

One of you clearly has the wrong interpretation. A large part seems to be the question between Target Spotting and Spotting in Limiting Terrain. This is another place where a different word should have been used, because the crossover causes confusion.

The salient concept here is that a unit does not become spotted when fired upon by an enemy, even if that enemy is within 3 hexes. Thus the target is still "Unspotted". Ergo, even though the aircraft are considered to be attacking from an adjacent hex, they do not make the enemy pieces spotted and thus may not attack.

Drew has it right.