Armored and Air Units Seek Closer Coordination to Halt ‘Friendly Fire’ : Combat: Redoubled effort includes use of new footage to help pilots learn to recognize U.S. vehicles.

Amid new concerns about the threat to U.S. troops posed by “friendly fire,” Army aviation and armored units here have assigned high priority to minimizing such casualties in an expected ground offensive, according to officers here.

The redoubled effort includes the use of new gun-camera footage to help helicopter pilots learn to recognize American vehicles from the air and plans to tighten battlefield coordination between air and ground commanders.

Other steps may include the introduction of unspecified new recognition devices designed to make front-line U.S. tanks and armored vehicles more easily identifiable to attack aircraft seeking to strike at Iraqi forces.

The new attention here to the problems of friendly fire comes after Army attack helicopters flying missions in border skirmishes this week have found unexpected challenges in distinguishing friend from foe.

“What we’ve found is that when you have two opposing forces intertwined, it’s very difficult to separate the friendlies from the enemy,” said Lt. Col. Bill Hatch, commander of a battalion of AH-64 Apache helicopters in this 1st Armored Division, which has not yet been involved in combat. “It’s just exceedingly difficult.”

In one incident, an Apache from the 1st Infantry Division was reported to have mistakenly launched a Hellfire missile at what turned out to be a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, killing two infantrymen and wounding six others.

Officers here said the accident occurred in an attack that has been severely criticized within the military by the theater commander, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who described the raid in a stern message to subordinates as an example of excessive use of firepower.

At least 100 laser-guided Hellfires, designed for use against heavily armored tanks, were launched against what proved to be trucks, observation posts and scattered infantrymen, according to officers familiar with the incident.

The high-tech missiles are so expensive that few Apache pilots had been permitted to test-fire them in training before the war began.

Schwarzkopf, who has insisted on close adherence to rules of engagement restricting the use of destructive weapons against lightly armed targets, was said by officers to be “not too happy” about the border salvo.

A brigade commander here, Col. James Riley, cited the message from the commander in chief to reinforce an order to infantry officers not to squander their most lethal tank-killing ammunition on second-tier Iraqi forces.

“You use a fly swatter on a fly,” Riley said this week. “You save your best ammo for the appropriate targets.”

There was no indication that the large number of Hellfire missiles fired during the border skirmish had contributed to the Bradley-killing incident, ground officers cautioned. But they said the apparent lack of discrimination in the Apache attack had underscored the recognition that friendly-fire--from the Army helicopter and an Air Force warplane--has claimed more ground troops’ lives than have Iraqi attacks since the war began.

In seeking to avoid such mishaps in this division, helicopter pilots began Tuesday night to use gun cameras to take night-time photographs of some ground units as an aid to identification in the low-light conditions when friendly and enemy vehicles can be most difficult to tell apart.

The new film is to be used to augment an extensive array of daylight videotapes and photographs of both American and Iraqi vehicles and equipment that pilots have already sought to commit to memory.

But with the sophisticated Apache helicopters able to fire missiles from distances at which visual recognition can be troublesome, Hatch, the aviation commander, said the most important step in minimizing friendly fire would be to make clear where American forces end and enemy lines begin.

“The crucial thing in the avoidance of fratricide is for the aviation guy to get face to face with the ground commander,” said the veteran pilot, who commands the 1st Aviation Regiment. “This, in itself, goes a long way.”

To minimize the risk of same-side casualties when this division joins in the combat, Hatch said in an interview, his Apache pilots would prefer to attack enemy forces well beyond American units at points where the attack helicopters “can take the load off your back by reaching out beyond the front lines.”

He emphasized that Army pilots are trained to ensure that they are aiming at hostile targets before launching their missiles.

“I will not haphazardly engage what I think is the enemy out here,” the lieutenant colonel said.

But the Apache commander warned that the mission could become far more dangerous if attack helicopters were called in to support a close-in fight, a task he made clear he would prefer to avoid.

“It’s very difficult right now,” Hatch said he would warn ground commanders in such cases, “and if I start shooting, I’m going to take out some friendlies.”