Army Changes Training to Curb ‘Friendly Fire’ Battle Casualties

The Army, since investigating “friendly fire” deaths and injuries in the Persian Gulf War, has begun changing training and tactics in the hope of limiting such casualties, military officials said Monday.

Maj. Pete Keating, an Army public affairs officer at the Pentagon, said the changes already are being put into practice at the National Training Center in California and elsewhere.

Keating said that the changes were recommended after a friendly-fire study lasting several months.

He said that some of the steps being taken involve changes in the training of soldiers, in battlefield doctrine or tactics and technical improvements in materials.

The steps include:

--Using robots for armored combat training at the National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, Calif., to help soldiers learn to identify vehicles by day or night and under various weather conditions.

--Having unknown troops “pop up on the battlefield” in light infantry drills at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Chaffee, Ark. The pop-ups challenge soldiers to distinguish friend from foe in close combat.

--Changing doctrine to improve battlefield control so that units learn to be more alert to the whereabouts of fellow fighters .

--Improving images on heat-seeking viewfinders used to detect engines and exhaust, a means of guiding ordnance to a target.

--Making more use of portable satellite navigation devices to pinpoint the positions of U.S. vehicles.

Gen. Gordon Sullivan, the Army’s chief of staff, ordered the investigation after the Gulf conflict, in which 35 of the 148 Americans who died in action were killed inadvertently by friendly fire.