Better 'Blue Force' Tracking

摘要

America's armed services are in the throes of a new and far-reaching campaign to eradicate the scourge of "friendly fire." Gulf War II had hardly stopped before the services had launched fresh reviews of fratricide- inadvertent attacks that troops inflict on comrades in the swirling confusion of battle. They are reassessing and, at times, altering tactics, technologies, procedures, and doctrine. One prime objective is dramatic improvement in blue force tracking, that is, the ability to pinpoint the whereabouts of friendly forces in a rapidly changing battlespace. There has been no upsurge in friendly fire casualties. The opposite is the case, as was seen in Gulf War II's "major combat phase" in March and April 2003. A preliminary analysis showed that fratricide of all types accounted for about 11 percent of 115 US battle deaths. Those figures suggest notable progress in recent years. In Desert Storm in 1991, fratricide was blamed for 35 of 148 US battle deaths- or about 24 percent.