CBS Evening News (6:30 PM ET) - CBS March 8, 2003
Cutting down on friendly fire accidents
RUSS MITCHELL, anchor:
With planning for a war against Iraq in its final stages, the Pentagon is rushing the most advanced tactical communications technology to the troops. Jim Acosta tells us the US wants to avoid a repeat of Desert Storm by keeping allied soldiers from firing on one another.
JIM ACOSTA reporting:
In the heat of battle, US military planners know soldiers sometimes get lost in the fog of war...
Unidentified Man #1: I hope it's not friendlies I just blew up 'cause they're all dead.
ACOSTA: ...and encounter the danger of friendly fire. At the Army's Communications Electronics Command, or CECOM, new technologies are being developed to reduce what the military calls 'fratricide.'
Mr. GERRY MELENDEZ (Chief, Special Projects Office): The system has to be--has to perform at--at--at very high levels of--of confidence.
ACOSTA: Gerry Melendez and his team are working on 'friend or foe ID systems' that the Army hopes will not only avoid friendly fire, but allow commanders to keep track of everybody on the battlefield. Other tools under development include this modified binocular system that can tell who's who and this Land Warrior system that features a laser and wearable computer that identifies a target as far as a mile away.
Ms. LAURA LOEHLE (Researcher, US Army): It absolutely works. It's a matter of getting it out there.
ACOSTA: But that's the problem. These systems are, at best, two to five years from deployment, and even then, developers admit, it will still come down to the person who pulls the trigger.
In Vietnam, friendly fire incidents accounted for almost four out of every 10 American casualties.
Lieutenant Colonel PIERS WOOD (Retired, Defense Analyst, GlobalSecurity.org): There's a horrible rush of adrenaline that comes over you when you realize you may have done something as horrific as this.
ACOSTA: Retired Lieutenant Colonel Piers Wood is haunted by the memories of accidentally firing artillery on his fellow soldiers and hearing the chilling radio call to 'check fire.'
Lt. Col. WOOD: We waited 12 seconds while we watched and waited for these rounds to descend on innocent and helpless people.
Unidentified Man #2: I just killed a bunch of people, you know?
Unidentified Man #3: Yeah, but we don't know which ones they are.
Unidentified Man #2: They're friendlies.
ACOSTA: In just 100 hours of the 1991 Gulf War, friendly fire incidents left 35 soldiers dead. In Afghanistan, 30 percent of American casualties have been caused by friendly fire. It's likely accidents would happen again in Iraq, where US forces are expected to move faster and cover more ground at night than ever before.
Colonel MITCH MITCHELL (Retired, US Army; CBS News Analyst): The level of intensity does not decrease, but the ability to recognize friend or foe does decrease significantly.
ACOSTA: While some friend-or-foe systems are in place now, they're nowhere near the technology that's on the horizon. So the job of preventing friendly fire will be largely left to those doing the firing. Jim Acosta, CBS News, New York.
MITCHELL: Still to come on tonight's CBS EVENING NEWS, as the war clouds build, what's an investor to do? Also, one overweight teen-ager's drastic effort to lose weight. And, the competition that has ballet shoemakers on their toes.
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Copyright © 2003, CBS Broadcasting Inc.
