Military
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure
I was working Radar East; 2 [military aircraft] departed with a request to use IR-080. My data coordinated with the surrounding approaches and sectors and I cleared the aircraft into IR-80 maintain 10 thousand. The pilot read back 1000 for the altitude and also asked for a 270 to lose altitude. I heard 1000 with the read back and just assumed he was descending to 1000 AGL for maneuvers in the route and didn't issue a correction. I was unable to accomplish a manual or automated handoff with [another] approach(the next facility on the IR route) either due to altitude or the routing on the strip; since my data had accomplished all of the coordination in reference to blocking for the IR route; I called the with the last known radar position and asked if it was ok to have the flight call them at checkpoint B on the route just outside of ZZZ airspace. They approved. I was notified after my shift that [the other TRACON] had called and advised that the flight had possibly violated approximately 8 different sectors across two separate Centers and it was possibly due to other facilities not knowing the flight was IFR and/or thought they were supposed to be on a different route(IR-079) (IR-079 and IR-080 are shown as the same within our airspace on the IDS).I believe that lack of knowledge of MTRs led to the event. It was the first time myself or my data had ever dealt with clearing anyone into an IR route. I thought we had done everything correctly and was surprised to get the call after work. More in depth instruction on the coordination required for the use of IR routes. If the route ends multiple facilities away how do we verify that everyone down the road is notified appropriately before we clear an aircraft to use it. Do we have to notify all affected facilities prior to clearing the aircraft in.
TRACON Controller described multiple airspace incursions resulting from his unfamiliarity with IR route operations.