Can friendly fire deaths be stopped?
NO FIRE is friendly if you’re on the receiving end of it. Last week four Canadian soldiers were killed on a shooting range in Afghanistan when a US F-16 jet mistakenly bombed their position. Technology to prevent such incidents is available and improving, but may never be issued. So-called ‘blue-on-blue’ accidents have been a feature of war for many years. US A-10 Thunderbolt tank-busting aircraft were responsible for nine UK deaths during the 1991 Gulf conflict, and statistics on troops killed by their own side — up to 15 per cent — have changed little since World War II. During the 1990s a number of combat identification technology initiatives started, but have since been sidelined. There were handheld beacons emitting coded pulses of near-infrared light…
