Fratricide: A Preventable Technological Disease

Abstract

Commanders who lead their troops in combat realize that they may suffer casualties in the process. This is an inevitable by-product of war and is taken for granted. However, they do not take for granted that a portion of their casualties will be inflicted by their own forces. Yet, in each of America's wars from World War I through Operation Desert Storm, a significant number of U.S. personnel have been killed and wounded as a direct result of friendly fire/fratricide. A brief review of some of these documented fratricide incidents and associated causes is provided. With the observation that technological advances to prevent fratricide has not kept pace with today's sophisticated modern weapon systems, current anti-fratricide methods and future materiel solutions are detailed in this paper.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 23, 1992
Accession Number
ADA251828

Entities

People

  • Michael P. O'connor

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Defense
  • Air Force
  • Airborne Warning And Control System
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Aircrafts
  • Artillery
  • Attack Helicopters
  • Identification Systems
  • Iff Systems
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Navigation
  • Target Recognition
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies