Fighting Friendly Fire
The death of a British aid worker last week in Afghanistan is the source of much anguish today, and understandably so. But if the American and British governments want to do right by the now deceased 36-year-old Linda Norgrove, then they’ll invest significantly more money in ground-force modernization, especially Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) assets.
Friendly-fire incidents, of course, are an inevitable part of war. But they have taken on an outsized importance given the decline in recent years in hostile-fire casualties. (For example, nearly 60,000 U.S. military personnel were killed in the Vietnam War versus less than 5,000 U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan thus far.)
Blame the proverbial fog of war for friendly-fire incidents. Soldiers and Marines often lack situational awareness. They don’t know where exactly they are vis-à-vis their compatriots, enemy forces and civilians; and so, sometimes they inadvertently kill friendly forces and noncombatants.
The fog of war, of course, will never be entirely eliminated. It can, however, be minimized and much reduced as a problem. And the way to do this is to empower frontline Soldiers and Marines with the same types of ISR assets that they have in the civilian world.
For example, young people today grow up with cell phones through which they can relay and receive voice, data and images in near real-time virtually anywhere in the world. This same capability would be tremendously helpful to our frontline troops.
The problem is network security and mobility in distant and austere areas with no existing infrastructure. That is, any military network must be secure from enemy infiltration; and troops must be able to access this network while traversing the battlefield.
That’s easier said than done. In fact, building a secure, robust and mobile network for our ground troops is a huge technical, logistical and financial challenge. And, at a time when Washington and London alike are foolishly looking to scale back defense spending, the easiest things to cut are so-called “exotic” weapons systems that don’t have the panache of a ship or a fighter jet.
But the last air-to-air engagement that the U.S. ever had was in…Vietnam? Korea maybe? And the last major sea battle was during World War II I think.
My point is this: The types of wars that we’re fighting in the early 21st Century are ground-intensive. They require lots of “boots on the ground.” And so, that’s the source of most friendly fire incidents today.
Friendly-fire incidents can be minimized and reduced, but only if we reorient the defense budget toward where it will do the most good; and that is with our ground troops who are doing the fighting and dying on our behalf.
John Guardiano blogs at www.ResoluteCon.Com, and you can follow him on Twitter: @JohnRGuardiano.