Friendly fire

This basic combat logic may be enhanced by three additional functions (1) defense, which adds a notional ability to agents to be able to withstand a greater number of hits before having their state degraded, (2) reconstitution, which adds a provision for previously injured agents to be reconstituted to their alive state, and (3) fratricide ( or friendly fire), which adds an element of realism to ISAAC combat by making it possible to inadvertently hit friendly forces. 

Brown P, Preece MA, Will RG. Friendly fire in medicine hormones, homografts, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Lancet 1992 340(8810) 24-7. 

As a practical matter, the tank crew s overall success depends on the speed and accuracy of the tank commander. As long as the commander sees the enemy tank or fighting vehicle before the enemy sees him, he and his crew can usually destroy the enemy. This is termed staying inside the enemy s decision loop. If the enemy sees him first then the outcome is likely to be catastrophic for him and his crew. Speed is of the essence. Also, crucial is the accuracy of the friend/foe determination to prevent friendly-fire casualties. Identification of friend or foe is highly contextual and depends on what the Army calls situational awareness. Situational awareness is highly complex and depends on an accurate understanding of the moment-to-moment dynamics of the fire and maneuver of the particular battle. 

McDiarmid, M.A., Squibb, K., Engelhardt, S., Oliver, M., Gucer, P., Wilson, P.D., Kane, R., Kabat, M., Kaup, B., Anderson, L., Hoover, D., Brown, L., Jacobson-Kram, D. (2001b). Surveillance of depleted uranium exposed Gulf War veterans health effects observed in an enlarged friendly fire cohort. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 43 991-1000. 

Most members of professional, volunteer Armed Forces accept that the job entails a certain exposure to physical danger. With that goes an equally inescapable exposure to the risk of psychological injury - the two are closely correlated (Jones and Wessely, 2001). Certain factors also increase this risk. Studies have shown that the psychological consequences of being wounded by your own side are far greater than when it occurs as a result of enemy action. The latter is part of the military contract - the former is not. This is the problem of friendly fire. 

The accident report on a friendly fire shootdown of a U.S. Army helicopter over the Iraqi no-fly zone in 1994, for example, describes the chain of events leading to the shootdown. Included in these events is the fact that the helicopter pilots did not change to the radio frequency required in the no-fly zone when they entered it (they stayed on the enroute frequency). Stopping at this event in the chain (which the official report does), it appears that the helicopter pilots were partially at fault for the loss by not following radio procedures. An independent account of the accident [159], however, notes that the U.S. commander of the operation had made... 

To provide additional understanding of STAMP, it is used to describe the causes of several very different types of losses—a friendly fire shootdown of a U.S. Army helicopter by a U.S. Air Force fighter jet over northern Iraq, the contamination of a public water system with E. coli bacteria in a small town in Canada, and the loss of a Milstar satellite. Chapter 5 presents the friendly fire accident analysis. The other accident analyses are contained in appendixes B and C. 

This chapter delves into the causation of the loss of a US. Army Black Hawk helicopter and all its occupants from friendly fire by a US. Air Force F-15 over northern Iraq in 1994. This example was chosen because the controversy and multiple viewpoints and books about the shootdown provide the information necessary to create most of the STAMP analysis. Accident reports often leave out important causal information (as did the official accident report in this case). Because of the nature of the accident, most of the focus is on operations. Appendix B presents an example of an accident where engineering development plays an important role. Social issues involving public health are the focus of the accident analysis in appendix C. 

On April 15,1994, after nearly three years of daily operations over the TAOR (Tactical Area of Responsibility), two U.S. Air Force F-15 s patrolling the area shot down two US. Army Black Hawk helicopters, mistaking them for Iraqi Hind helicopters. The Black Hawks were carrying twenty-six people, fifteen U.S. citizens and eleven others, among them British, French, and Turkish military officers as well as Kurdish citizens. All were killed in one of the worst air-to-air friendly fire accidents involving U.S. aircraft in military history. 

The Hierarchical Safety Control Structure to Prevent Friendly Fire Accidents... 

The NCA and UNCINCEUR must estabhsh a command and control structure that provides the ability to prevent friendly fire accidents. 

The guidelines for ROE generated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (with tailoring to suit specific operational conditions) must be capable of preventing friendly fire accidents in all types of situations. 

The components of the Combined Task Force (CTF) organization relevant to the accident (and to preventing friendly fire) were a Combined Task Force staff, a Combined Forces Air Component (CFAC), and an Army Mihtary Coordination Center. The Air Force fighter aircraft were co-located with CTF Headquarters and CFAC... 

Rules of engagement and operational orders and plans must be established at the command level that prevent friendly fire accidents. The plans must include allocating responsibility and establishing and monitoring communication channels to allow for coordination of flights into the theater of action. 

To prevent friendly fire accidents, pilots need to know exactly what friendly aircraft are flying in the no-fly zone at all times as well as know and follow the ROE and other procedures for preventing such accidents. The higher levels of control delegated the authority and guidance to develop local procedures to the CTF level and below. These local procedures included ... 

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