thedrifter
04-08-03, 02:30 PM
Blurring of battle lines increases risk of being killed by own side
By Thom Shanker
New York Times
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
WASHINGTON -- When an allied convoy came under fire from American warplanes in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing 19 Kurdish fighters and wounding three Army Special Forces soldiers, the precision ordnance fell exactly where it was aimed, Pentagon officials said today.
Although the investigation into the incident is just beginning, officials said it appeared that the weapon performed as it was supposed to. The error is likely to have been human, either in not realizing that the convoy contained allies or in mistakenly pinpointing its position as the bull's-eye.
Battlefield deaths of allies from weapons fired by their own side, called "friendly fire" by the military, cannot be eliminated despite the improved accuracy of bombs, military officers and historians of warfare said today.
In fact, as modern combat puts an emphasis on missions behind enemy lines and simultaneous and rapid stabs deep into enemy territory, the risk of such attacks on allies could even grow. The peril increases because the complex battlefields no longer feature linear battle lines with clearly drawn fronts and flanks and rear echelons.
The Pentagon has developed technology to discern friend from foe, and American forces train with an arsenal of devices including infrared goggles, adhesive thermal identification strips, specialized radios and digital maps to separate blue forces, or allies, from red, the enemy.
Old-fashioned technology is still used on the battlefield — splashes of an unusual color of paint or even national flags — but a clever adversary quickly notices these markings and can copy them.
As allied warplanes began flying around-the-clock missions over Baghdad in close support of Army and Marine ground forces who have made armed forays into the city since Saturday, pilots were given strict rules of engagement. Drawn up for missions over the Iraqi capital's complicated terrain, the rules are intended to prevent additional deaths of allied forces or civilians.
"Since we're working in closer proximity to friendly forces, civilians and the Iraqi military, we're under tighter control from the ground-forward air controllers in terms of how we use our ordnance," one pilot, who flies under the call sign Champ, said today in a telephone interview from his base near Iraq.
At least a dozen allied deaths may have been caused by errors or inadvertent attacks by allied troops, but the final determinations may not be made until long after the shooting stops. "Getting all the facts with people who are still engaged in combat will be probably more difficult than a peacetime scenario," Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today.
Initial inquiries indicate some of these deaths appear to have been error or oversight: senior military officials say that the British jet shot down by an American missile had failed to re-enter Kuwait from Iraq through one of the air corridors cleared for allied warplanes.
The British plane's identification beacon also appears to have been unable to communicate with the American air defense crew, although it is unknown whether it malfunctioned, was turned off or was incorrectly programmed, officials said.
Preventing attacks by allied warplanes on their own ground forces is a priority for the overall commander of the air war, who has a team of officers review every bombing mission in an effort to keep such forces out of harm's way.
"You have to remember this is a very complicated business we're in right now and there's lots of things going on out there," Lt. Gen. Michael Moseley said this weekend from his headquarters in Saudi Arabia. "So when things like this happen, you do step back and begin to investigate the process, the procedures, the tactics and the techniques, and you begin to look and see if we have hardware or people issues. That's where we're at right now."
The issue of people killed by fire from their own forces was a growing concern for the Pentagon in both the first Persian Gulf War and in Afghanistan. According to Pentagon records, just under one-quarter of the 147 American combat deaths in the first gulf war were from erroneous attacks from their own side. The trend continued during the war in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, 46 American military members lost their lives on the battlefield, at bases supporting the mission or at sea, according to Pentagon records. Of those, 16 died from hostile fire, 4 from fire from their own side, and the others in aircraft crashes, naval or industrial accidents, or from nonhostile gunshot wounds.
Of the people killed by fire from their own side, three died when a 2,000-pound satellite-guided bomb dropped from a B-52 hit their position north of Kandahar, and one died under fire from an AC-130 gunship.
Four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were also killed, and eight others wounded, when their training exercise was attacked by an American jet fighter. The Pentagon had no records on the number of Afghan allies killed by American fire.
By comparison, Pentagon records indicate that casualties caused by friends and allies — statistics that include both dead and wounded — were about 3 percent of the casualties from World War II through the war in Vietnam.
"While efforts have been made since the gulf war back in '91 to do a better job of minimizing friendly fire, the way we now operate on the battlefield has increased the risk," said Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
In the modern war zone, Mr. Krepinevich said, American and allied forces "operate in nonlinear formations — like the spearheads into Baghdad. At the same time you have Special Operations forces in various parts of the country, in small units. Over all, you have clumps of forces, intermingled with the enemy."
One senior military officer at the Pentagon said the number of people killed by fire from their own forces in this war "is not so high given the intensity of the warfare, the speed with which we are trying to take these targets out, and the high lethality per round of ordnance we place on any target — even if it's the wrong one."
The officer said the pace and stress of combat in no way absolved the military for such deaths. "It's like the cop on the corner: You better know who you're shooting at before you pull the trigger," the officer said.
Deaths at the hands of allies are as old as armed combat, and have claimed some of this nation's most famous warriors. Military historians who study the subject always cite the death of one of the Civil War's most respected officers, Gen. Stonewall Jackson, shot by his own men when returning under cover of darkness from a reconnaissance mission.
"This is inherently a very dangerous business, with a lot of powerful stuff out there and all moving very fast," said Maj. Chris Conway, an Army spokesman who led a team of forward observers in the first gulf war.
For the war with Iraq, a number of combat identification systems have been shared among the Army, Marine Corps and British forces, Pentagon officials said.
But the real work has to begin before combat, Major Conway said, with the development of an array of surveillance systems to improve the overall view of the battlefield, the creation of tactics to separate friend from foe even during simultaneous operations, the production of advanced optics — and dedicated training.
Sempers,
Roger
By Thom Shanker
New York Times
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
WASHINGTON -- When an allied convoy came under fire from American warplanes in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing 19 Kurdish fighters and wounding three Army Special Forces soldiers, the precision ordnance fell exactly where it was aimed, Pentagon officials said today.
Although the investigation into the incident is just beginning, officials said it appeared that the weapon performed as it was supposed to. The error is likely to have been human, either in not realizing that the convoy contained allies or in mistakenly pinpointing its position as the bull's-eye.
Battlefield deaths of allies from weapons fired by their own side, called "friendly fire" by the military, cannot be eliminated despite the improved accuracy of bombs, military officers and historians of warfare said today.
In fact, as modern combat puts an emphasis on missions behind enemy lines and simultaneous and rapid stabs deep into enemy territory, the risk of such attacks on allies could even grow. The peril increases because the complex battlefields no longer feature linear battle lines with clearly drawn fronts and flanks and rear echelons.
The Pentagon has developed technology to discern friend from foe, and American forces train with an arsenal of devices including infrared goggles, adhesive thermal identification strips, specialized radios and digital maps to separate blue forces, or allies, from red, the enemy.
Old-fashioned technology is still used on the battlefield — splashes of an unusual color of paint or even national flags — but a clever adversary quickly notices these markings and can copy them.
As allied warplanes began flying around-the-clock missions over Baghdad in close support of Army and Marine ground forces who have made armed forays into the city since Saturday, pilots were given strict rules of engagement. Drawn up for missions over the Iraqi capital's complicated terrain, the rules are intended to prevent additional deaths of allied forces or civilians.
"Since we're working in closer proximity to friendly forces, civilians and the Iraqi military, we're under tighter control from the ground-forward air controllers in terms of how we use our ordnance," one pilot, who flies under the call sign Champ, said today in a telephone interview from his base near Iraq.
At least a dozen allied deaths may have been caused by errors or inadvertent attacks by allied troops, but the final determinations may not be made until long after the shooting stops. "Getting all the facts with people who are still engaged in combat will be probably more difficult than a peacetime scenario," Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today.
Initial inquiries indicate some of these deaths appear to have been error or oversight: senior military officials say that the British jet shot down by an American missile had failed to re-enter Kuwait from Iraq through one of the air corridors cleared for allied warplanes.
The British plane's identification beacon also appears to have been unable to communicate with the American air defense crew, although it is unknown whether it malfunctioned, was turned off or was incorrectly programmed, officials said.
Preventing attacks by allied warplanes on their own ground forces is a priority for the overall commander of the air war, who has a team of officers review every bombing mission in an effort to keep such forces out of harm's way.
"You have to remember this is a very complicated business we're in right now and there's lots of things going on out there," Lt. Gen. Michael Moseley said this weekend from his headquarters in Saudi Arabia. "So when things like this happen, you do step back and begin to investigate the process, the procedures, the tactics and the techniques, and you begin to look and see if we have hardware or people issues. That's where we're at right now."
The issue of people killed by fire from their own forces was a growing concern for the Pentagon in both the first Persian Gulf War and in Afghanistan. According to Pentagon records, just under one-quarter of the 147 American combat deaths in the first gulf war were from erroneous attacks from their own side. The trend continued during the war in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, 46 American military members lost their lives on the battlefield, at bases supporting the mission or at sea, according to Pentagon records. Of those, 16 died from hostile fire, 4 from fire from their own side, and the others in aircraft crashes, naval or industrial accidents, or from nonhostile gunshot wounds.
Of the people killed by fire from their own side, three died when a 2,000-pound satellite-guided bomb dropped from a B-52 hit their position north of Kandahar, and one died under fire from an AC-130 gunship.
Four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were also killed, and eight others wounded, when their training exercise was attacked by an American jet fighter. The Pentagon had no records on the number of Afghan allies killed by American fire.
By comparison, Pentagon records indicate that casualties caused by friends and allies — statistics that include both dead and wounded — were about 3 percent of the casualties from World War II through the war in Vietnam.
"While efforts have been made since the gulf war back in '91 to do a better job of minimizing friendly fire, the way we now operate on the battlefield has increased the risk," said Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
In the modern war zone, Mr. Krepinevich said, American and allied forces "operate in nonlinear formations — like the spearheads into Baghdad. At the same time you have Special Operations forces in various parts of the country, in small units. Over all, you have clumps of forces, intermingled with the enemy."
One senior military officer at the Pentagon said the number of people killed by fire from their own forces in this war "is not so high given the intensity of the warfare, the speed with which we are trying to take these targets out, and the high lethality per round of ordnance we place on any target — even if it's the wrong one."
The officer said the pace and stress of combat in no way absolved the military for such deaths. "It's like the cop on the corner: You better know who you're shooting at before you pull the trigger," the officer said.
Deaths at the hands of allies are as old as armed combat, and have claimed some of this nation's most famous warriors. Military historians who study the subject always cite the death of one of the Civil War's most respected officers, Gen. Stonewall Jackson, shot by his own men when returning under cover of darkness from a reconnaissance mission.
"This is inherently a very dangerous business, with a lot of powerful stuff out there and all moving very fast," said Maj. Chris Conway, an Army spokesman who led a team of forward observers in the first gulf war.
For the war with Iraq, a number of combat identification systems have been shared among the Army, Marine Corps and British forces, Pentagon officials said.
But the real work has to begin before combat, Major Conway said, with the development of an array of surveillance systems to improve the overall view of the battlefield, the creation of tactics to separate friend from foe even during simultaneous operations, the production of advanced optics — and dedicated training.
Sempers,
Roger