Tuesday, February 27, 2001

By Jon R. Anderson
Stars and Stripes

Jon R. Anderson / Stars and Stripes A Bradley Fighting Vehicle sits in the desert Sunday during a live fire exercise in Kuwait. U.S. and Kuwaiti troops took part; among the dignitaries on hand were former President George Bush and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.

NEAR THE IRAQI BORDER, Kuwait — U.S. and Kuwaiti forces unleashed a fiery live-fire demonstration just 10 miles from the Iraqi border Sunday designed to send a message to Saddam Hussein that, at least here in Kuwait, the coalition remains strong.

But while troops appear as ready now as they were a decade ago to deliver a punishing answer to any Iraqi attack, what’s not as certain is whether the military would be any better at preventing "friendly fire" deaths among its own ranks.

In fact, 10 years after the 1991 war with Iraq, the Army is still struggling to field "quick fix" gear designed to reduce fratricide. It wants to give soldiers high-tech equipment with the same capability that makes it virtually impossible for friendly jet aircraft to shoot each other down. But that is years behind schedule.

"I certainly wish we would have had something in the hands of soldiers by now," said Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, the Army’s top Middle East commander. "Unfortunately, it just has not happened."

In memory

A trinity of U.S. leadership during the Gulf War — former President George Bush, coalition commander Gen. H. Norman Schwartzkopf and then Joint Chiefs chairman Colin Powell — laid a wreath Monday at a memorial commemorating the some 300 troops killed in action during the conflict at the U.S Embassy in Kuwait City.

What went unsaid, however, was that one out of every four lost in combat was killed by friendly fire.

Despite all the high-tech weapons and six months of training leading up to the war, the death toll was higher than what military historians say is the typical rate in modern combat.

In the new age of cruise missiles and smart bombs, most Americans found it hard to believe that the only thing leaders could provide to help friendly units keep each other out of their own crosshairs was the decidedly low-tech upside down Vs painted on all coalition vehicles.

While field commanders say the so-called "fog of war" will make it hard, if not impossible, to eliminate fratricide completely, the reduction of friendly fire casualties became a top priority for the military in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

Despite the focus, U.S. forces here in Kuwait are little better equipped to deal with the problem.

"I don’t think there’s a gadget out there that will fix that completely," said Lt. Col. J.B. Burton, who leads the 1st Cavalry Division’s battalion of tanks and infantry now in Kuwait for four months of maneuvers. "Technologically, we’re not that much farther along than we were during the Gulf War. But we mitigate that with a lot of good training."

"We know what the war plans are," he said, "we know where people are supposed to be and we train and rehearse constantly."

Indeed, the Army has emphasized reduction of friendly fire everywhere. At the Army’s National Training Center in California and the Combat Maneuver Training Center in Germany, efforts have reduced would-be "deaths" during war games to about 15 percent, officials say.

Complicating matters in places like Kuwait — where U.S. troops expect to fight alongside the Kuwaiti army if the border ever needs to be defended again — is identifying coalition units in the heat of battle.

While the Kuwaitis have bought more than 200 M1A2 Abrams tanks, they also have hundreds of other tanks and armored vehicles that are virtually identical to Iraqi forces.

Plus, war plans also call for reinforcements who have not be able to train and rehearse together for months on end to surge into the region on short notice.

"You rush a couple hundred thousand people here to fight all of a sudden and that’s when you’ll wish you had some gadgets," Burton said.

And it’s on the gadgets front that the Army has had the most problems addressing fratricide.

Not so quick fixes

Shortly after the Gulf War, the Army began issuing what officials dubbed "quick fix" technology until more advanced systems could be developed.

The first was special panel that glows when looked at through the types of infrared targeting scopes used by both U.S. tank and armored vehicle gunners and many strike fighters.

The second, dubbed "Budlite," is a small device that flashes with an infrared light and can be placed on tanks and even worn by troops.

So far, however, the Army has only been able to provide the equipment to four of its 10 divisions.

It will take the service another two years to outfit the rest of its units, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Maddux, program manager for the Army’s Combat Identification Program.

Each division is getting enough panels for 2,000 vehicles apiece, he said. Even then, that’s only enough to outfit front-line forces such as tanks, fighting vehicles and battlefield repair units.

Both personally and professionally, Maddux said he’s been frustrated with how long it’s taken.

Regardless, he added, though, "while it may seem like it is going out slowly, it is going out."

Identify Friend or Foe

Also taking a long time are the more high-tech solutions commanders want to see put in place.

The Army had hoped to already start fielding gear it has dubbed the Battlefield Combat Identification System. Similar to pilots’ Identify Friend or Foe, or IFF, equipment aboard all U.S. warplanes, the designers say the BCIS will warn ground troops that they’re about to shoot friendly forces before they pull the trigger.

"It’s IFF for ground," said Maddux, explaining the gear emits a high frequency query at whatever a weapon is pointing at.

Friendly forces will be equipped with omni-directional transponders that will electronically tell the shooter to hold their fire within a second, literally.

"A voice says ‘friend, friend, friend,’ in the headset of the shooter and a red dot appears in his sight," Maddux said.

The program has not been fully funded, however, in part because of critical General Accounting Office reports. About $100 million has been invested in developing the equipment so far and Maddux says the Army will make a final decision on whether to field the equipment in tests this summer.

If given the green light, the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, will be the first unit to harness the new technology at an initial cost of about $90 million with additional divisions outfitted for about $60 million each.

The Army is also working on a similar system for light-infantry forces called the Individual Combat Identification System. The equipment will come in a "sleeker and smaller package," Maddux said.

While VICS weighs anywhere from 50 to 70 pounds, the hoped-for equipment for light fighters would be carried on helmets and attached directly to rifles. About $20 has been spent so far on research and development and another $50 million is planned for fielding across six divisions beginning in 2003.

During Desert Storm, 61 percent of all fratricides were blamed on ground-to-ground fire and officials hope these fixes will help alleviate that problem in America’s next war. That still leaves the 39 percent that has been blamed on air-to-ground shootings. There is no solution on the horizon for that.

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