Many practitioners and analysts believe that, despite the debilitating effect fratricide incidents can have on a force’s morale, armed forces have been slow to act in developing viable combat identification solutions. There is also frustration that the increase in the ability to project lethal force has not always corresponded with the ability to distinguish friend from foe.
That said, NATO is on the verge of a receiving clear guidance in the form of a Military Utility Assessment (MUA), which will provide recommendations for acquiring battlefield identification systems, adopting associated doctrine and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) and implementing and delivering effective training programmes.
The MUA recommendations of candidate systems will in many ways be the capstone of a journey that started in 1992 after it was found 24 per cent of US fatalities in the 1990-91 Gulf War were caused by friendly fire. The MUA report, due to be released this month, will focus on assessing the functionality, operational impact and suitability of the various solutions, rather than comparing different systems.
