4 ms·
I think a large part of the motivation is to limit friendly fire. My father served in Vietnam. He said he was shot at by the US much more often than by the VC.
by markkat 15y ago
I think a large part of the motivation is to limit friendly fire. My father served in Vietnam. He said he was shot at by the US much more often than by the VC. Once he and a pal were sent to guard the perimeter. Just after they got into position, their base opened up on them.
- TomOfTTB 15y agoA cell. phone is not going to prevent friendly fire. The military already has extensive technology for this (Google "Identification Friend or Foe"). More to the point if you've ever been in a live fire situation you realize fairly quickly it isn't a situation where you could hear a cell. phone (or the guy next to you unless he's screaming)
- markkat 15y agoI don't mean a phone call to stop ff, just tracking the positions of the phones to prevent it.
- TomOfTTB 15y agoWith all due respect to Military GPS (which is more accurate than Consumer GPS) it can't identify friendly combatants from unfriendly ones on the ground (and again they have IFF for that). As far as air strikes they're only called in if you have eyes on the target. The whole process is fairly complicated in that a commander on the ground has to order the air strike from an Analyst (usually in Florida). The analyst then reviews satellite and low altitude surveillance air craft footage to confirm the target and only then is it passed on to the drone pilot (usually in Nevada). To the best of my knowledge only 2 U.S. soldiers have ever been killed by air-based friendly fire in the modern (aka Predator Drone) era (and I remember because it was only a couple weeks ago and the articles cited it as the first time that had ever happened)
- gte910h 15y agoIFF is a plane/vehicles thing really.