U.K. to test technology to reduce friendly fire accidents
New technology will allow pilots to identify U.K. soldiers on the ground; the Combat ID Server (CIDS) system will be continuously updated about the location of U.K. troops on the ground; pilots will see these see blips representing U.K. ground units in his or her heads-up display
Few loses in war are more poignant than casualties of friendly fire. Defense ministries around the world have been seeking technologies to minimize friendly fire incidences, and the latest is the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MOD), which will commence trials of its Combat ID Server (CIDS) system from September. The CIDS is intended to make it easier for people about to unleash heavy firepower to find out if there are any British troops in their gunsights, so helping to reduce blue-on-blue incidents.
Jane’s International Defense Review (sub. req.) reports that CIDS will undergo testing from September until May next year. The demonstrator program uses imported American Rosetta data-gate tech from Rockwell and NetLink kit from General Dynamics, but “all development and integration work will be conducted within the U.K.” by Qinetiq and the two U.S. firms’ British subsidiaries, according to Qinetiq.
Lewis Page writes that The idea of CIDS is that it will maintain a database of British unit locations on the ground in the same way that U.S. Blue Force Tracker equipment does, updated in “near real time.” The CID server will pull in this information from many different sources, most notably at the moment the controversial Bowman radios used by U.K. land forces.
Every node in the Bowman radio cloud can locate itself using onboard GPS, and this information should be passed continually to the local CIDS. The system is intended to be compatible with U.S. Blue Force Tracker gear as well as equipment to be used by British strike pilots, artillery commanders and so on.
Pages says that this should mean that an American or British pilot, swooping down to drop ordinance on a battlefield in Afghanistan, will be able to see blips representing U.K. ground units in his or her heads-up display. This ought to help with the prevention of friendly fire incidents.
There might be other obstacles to total success with CIDS. As the Daily Telegraph Sean Rayment reported last year, one of the most important Bowman radios for this purpose, the portable set carried by the leader of every four-man team of dismounted British foot soldiers, reportedly has a few technical issues. Among these are the fact that it has poor battery life, and that the battery must be removed to check the charge level. This means that infantry corporals tend to leave it turned off most of the time, so as to be sure that some juice will be left when they need to send a message. This means that the Bowman box can not update the CID server with its position, and that no warning blips will appear.
Still, Page notes that CIDS is only at the demonstrator stage for now, and the Army is hoping to sort out the problems with portable Bowman. In the meantime, the system should at least work with vehicle-mounted nodes.
