how do we prevent friendly fire?

Question

too many of our own have died at the hands of friendlies in the gulf war and in the iraq war.as an american my condolences goes out to the family of the british man who was killed.this is the final straw,we cant have anymore of freindly fire.but how can it be prevented?

big dave your a big jerk.no one over here in america likes what happened.

Answer 1

I had a few ideas on this last night. What if the allies each had a different colour of flare attatched to there veichles that if they saw allied airsupport they could fire one into the air to indicate they were friendly. This could be changed everyday so the enemy cannot try and copy. This would mean the US would have to spend 5 minutes every morning briefing there soldiers and pilots what colour of flare was being used today. There would then be no excuse for friendly fire from the Americans. Flares can be seen at both night and day. Some may argue it gives positions away but soldiers are trained to fight the enemy so I suppose they would feel better if it was the enemy who was attacking and not there friends.

They could teach the US forces what our veichles look like from different heights and distances. I think the US would go mental if we accidently killed one of theirs and would demand the soldier be extridited. They need to learn they are no better than us and if anything we are actually better than them as we have the ability to see outside our own country. We learn about other allies and the equipment they use so why cant the US do the same. Its a disgrace.

In my opinion the US has one of the worst militaries on earth as it has no remorse for its actions. The shoot first ask questions later mentality is the actions of a nation in fear. Everyone is an enemy to the US in there eyes but there has to be a reason for this. The US is paranoid basically and does not take critism to well. We can go on all day telling the US how to avoid further blue on blue incidents but in reality they will do nothing about it. We can put flares on our tanks but the US wont tell the US soldiers that we have taken these measures so these incidents will keep happening. Throughout history the US has the worst record of friendly fire incidents but still nothing changes.

Its about time the US got its act together because at the rate its going its not going to have to many friends in the future. They spend half a trillion dollars of there military but its still rubbish. Face upto it America, the best equipment on earth is not going make your soldiers any better if the training is poor, and yours is poor. Only the US believes they have good army training. No doubt you have good soldiers and they try there best for there country but they cannot change the situation, its down to your government and basically it doesnt care about anyone but themselves.

Answer 2

The best way to do this is also the most low-tech.

Teach the British to: 1) obey Graphical Control Measures (markings on the map that set the boundaries of where you can go), 2) actually coordinate with their allies so we have some clue as to where the British units are; and 3) plot the actual positions of their units in a timely and accurate manner.

If the British had done any one of these - the tragedy would not have occurred.

The real shame is that the British reporting error that resulted in the pilot being told that there were no friendly units in the area - was the exact same error that produced a similar tragedy during the first Gulf war. As they are doing now - instead of correcting their reporting procedures they are blaming the Americans.

Answer 3

A part of the problem with US forces continually attacking allied troops is that a large proportion of the pilots are high on a drug called Dexedrine which is very similar to meth amphetamine whilst flying combat missions, if you don't believe this type go pills into your search engine. Sad wolfpacker if you believe that there has been no friendly fires incidents by US troops since 2003 you are deluded, in about 30 seconds i found lots of accounts of friendly fire resulting in deaths and injuries including one death from less than 2 months ago, this article also describes another incident from September last year which resulted in the death of 1 Canadian soldier and the wounding of dozens of others. Maybe the reason for your ignorance is that it is highly likely the US TV does not want these stories going out on the news as it makes your troops look incompetent.

Answer 4

The only way to prevent friendly fire incidents is to not go to war. In every since the advent of the bow and arrow as a weapon, there has been friendly fire instances. It is simply the way things are when you put hundreds, thousands of people together, and arm them with weapons and wage war.
The modern battle field is a very complex environment, to coordinate aircraft traveling at mach 1+, helicopters, armored vehicles and ground troops against a enemy that hides within the general population, seeking to avoid killing innocent bystanders and yet destroying the enemy all at the same time to where any mistake, misunderstood command, any minor breakdown in communication may result in a fatality. The modern battlefield requires every participant to may life and death decisions in a millisecond, and should wrong, poor, or bad, decision be made someone may die.

We have had friendly fire instances on the training range, let alone a battle field. It is just that during WW2 and Korea these was not news worthy material, but should one research the number of Friendly fire instances during these wars you would get a much higher number than what you would think. Especially when today's weapons and battlefields are very much more intricate and complex.

Answer 5

It is impossible to completely eliminate it. Friendly fire is only an issue becasue the enemy is unable to harm us in any kind of significant numbers. So it is easy to highlight f-fire casualties.
The accident with the British is an overreliance on technology to determine friend from foe. They should go back to the old days of vehicle recognition training with the naked eye. There needs to be better coordination between allies to determine where and when a unit is located.

Secondly, bad things happen in war and the families and media would like nothing better than to have these pilot's head on a platter. Is it fair? However, the media has already decided the cause was trigger-happy cowboy USAF pilots!

Answer 6

The final straw? Not hardly.

Too many have died due to friendly fire? How many is that? I bet you're thinking 1 is too many. The truth is you don't want our country to wage war unless they can assure no one will die. You don't have any idea how small or large the actual figure is. Historically, the technology used today HAS greatly reduced this battlefield hazard as a percentage of overall casualties. Look it up.

It's a part of war...all wars. Stonewall Jackson, the South's greatest General during the American Civil War, died due to friendly fire. THAT was one friendly fire death too many. This is nothing.

Answer 7

short of holding signs and honking horns as they drive around, im sad to say, all that can be done, is being done. We try our best, but im not sure how many of you have been in combat environments, but things happen so quickly and from so many directions, that you have literally half a second to make a decision. Friendly fire accidents have happened since the first war was fought, we only hear about it now, since this war is basically being fought on live television.

Answer 8

In the air war all planes have becon
and means of detection on freindly or not, in fact palnes we sell to other nations have a little backdoor to their computers we can disable by satelite transmissions.
As an example at beginning of gulf War I the Iraqui Air force in US and French built planes flew into Iran because they had no computer guideance systems to fight with and were actully flying by line of sight to escape.
The one force on earth that has bought planes, tanks subs from nations other than build their own who do not have recognition signals other nations can read or be able to disable is the Israelis.
This is one reason the US did nto want them to join in the Iraq conflict as no other contry of freindlys had a way to tell them from enemy. This ability is in all our radar guidance weapons systems also of which some are automaticly engaged by unknown forces arrivals.
Look the Engloish and Americans went into Iraq agfainst a non military with only a few guerilla and small units oppsoing them. they went in guns bloazing with no targets so when ever a target appeared they blew it away.
Body count, tanks hit planes destroyed are the way to measure your military prowess so in confusion and attempt to get some as quickly as possible accidents happen.
some ar by undertrained but damn few of these. Over eagerness and cowboy mentality is what gets many friendlys killed by their buddys and as long as it is nto too many of your own boys kiliig your own boys it is dismissed as feindly fire.
The hype of US and Brits to the men of how dangerous the job at ahnd and how good the enemy were going to be puts extra strain upon troops to kill and ask not what they killed.
In both Iraq excursions the Brits and US knew Saddam did nto have a modern fighting force, especially after the first gulf war and the year long bombardment of Iraqui military a year before we invaded and all the other preceding softening up projects were in place but weer had to make the propaganda to insure our ability to invade a nation that did notpose any threat to US or Brit countrys.

We do not have citizen soldiers we have warriors and warriors are for killing only. Citizenship depends upon that ability not what countrys needs are or ideals of country.

Gloriificcation of killing and the allowance of acts that would gt a sane person jhailed in peacetime by our military mentality will only add to the amounts of friendly fire incidents.

Never question the why the soldier was there in first place just try and blame anothrer soldier for your sending them there.

In the long run and truth of matter those who allow their leaders to make war without knowing reasons why are the friendlys who get soldiers killed , needlessly.

Answer 9

To Know Our Enemy Is The Biggist Question? How To You Tell Friend From Foe Even In Todays Society That Is The Answer Well If You Are The Enemy In Fact You Are the Enemy That Is All.

Answer 10

Friendly fire has plagued every army in every war ever fought since the beginning of the world. Unfortunate as it is, there will always be friendly "Blue on Blue" fire incidents. People are dragging this topic out way to much. Death does not care who shoots you.