US military rejects test system to prevent friendly fire

The US Army continues to test the so-called "smart" weaponswhose main task is to protect the military from "friendly fire". The weapon should either be signaled that in this direction the shooting should not be carried out due to the high probability of falling into one’s comrade, or block the very possibility of firing at such a moment. While the emphasis is on the first option.

They are trying to turn various existing versions of American small arms into the “smart” one. One of these is the 4 mm M5,56 automatic carbine.

Tests of special systems have been resumed, which allow the military to receive a visual and / or sound signal to prevent "friendly fire". Such a system operates in the case of equipping all unit soldiers with similar devices. And any soldier who does not have a “smart” system on his weapon will be perceived by the “smart” system of another soldier as an adversary. This is a peculiar version of the tactical “friend or foe” system, which is produced in several countries of the world, but has not yet received particularly wide distribution.

According to some reports, soldiers of special operations forces in Afghanistan tried to use something similar during tests in combat conditions.

However, the US military notes that the psychological effect of distrust of the system plays an important role. In conditions of bright light and dust, with the noise of battle, it is impossible to rely 100% on the fact that a light or sound signal will be perceived by the body adequately. Moreover, all human senses operate in a stressful mode, which can lead to an unpredictable reaction to the signal received from small arms.

In general, US Army personnel participating in the tests of "smart weapons" while the system was rejected. The human factor still prevails.

Now developers are trying to accentuate the signal from the “smart” system so that the fighter perceives it clearly even in a stressful situation.

Comments

[Insurgent]

Resumed testing of special systems that allow the military to receive visual and / or sound signal to prevent friendly fire. Such a system operates in the case of equipping all unit soldiers with similar devices. And any soldier who does not have a “smart” system on his weapon will be perceived by the “smart” system of another soldier as an adversary.

A bell in the teeth of everyone, and all business ...

Game with a bell / Village of Fools. Play with a bell

[Pvi1206]

A smart technique is programmed for a tough algorithm of action ... and programmers are ordinary people who can’t take everything into account at once ... so while the algorithm is brought to mind there may be victims ... remember two Boeing disasters ... they came from due to errors in the algorithm ...

[Irokez]

On all sorts of cunning and very smart (and even weapons) there are threaded bolts (screws, screws, all kinds of wedges). In a battlefield where electronics plays an important role, there will be electronic warfare and everything else that can turn off or vice versa turn on friendly fire.

[voyaka uh]

You need to get used to any innovation.
When the first traffic lights appeared at the dawn of the automotive era,
the drivers were also shocked: "an additional factor of distraction from driving
machine. "Used to ...

[Volodin]

An interesting analogy. And what ... Really add three lights to the machine: red - stand, yellow - go, green - or! Nothing, get used to it ...

[voyaka uh]

Friendly fire is a common and unpleasant thing.
I myself was miraculously not killed by a "friendly" machine gunner through the thickets of bushes.
In that case, a warning light would help a lot.

[Vasyan1971]

Quote: voyaka uh

I myself was miraculously not killed by a "friendly" machine gunner through the thickets of bushes.
In that case, a warning light would help a lot.

And this bulb will warn the insidious irreconcilable enemy that you are the one whom he has been looking forward to for a long time?

[Mik13]

Quote: voyaka uh

Friendly fire is a common and unpleasant thing.

Somewhere there was evidence that in modern conditions, with the normal organization of hostilities, losses from friendly fire are about 15%. For obvious reasons, tactical command commanders are in no hurry to report such incidents to the command, if there is an opportunity to write off losses on the enemy’s influence.

[voyaka uh]

In the Israeli army, this is absolutely impossible.
All clashes are investigated very carefully and extremely
fair. In my case, there was also an investigation at the brigade level,
although there were no casualties.
Testimony was given by dozens of soldiers and officers.

[tarakan]

But what about a stranger after his?

[voyaka uh]

"a stranger for his own?" ////
-----
Then emit a sector of fire. And the extreme soldiers of the two platoons get on their backs
red flags so that the machine gunners of the fire support group could
shoot only between them. We trained such things in exercises

Or mine for a stranger.
This, incidentally, is also a common and unpleasant situation.
Often found in all kinds of environments and semi-environments
enemy groups. For a machine gunner - a nightmare when in a straight line of fire
behind the enemy - their own. Usually, in such a situation, cease fire.
At least in the IDF it was like that.
Machine-gun bullets keep destructive power away. The flight will kill its own.
And all kinds of special forces are given short-range weapons with small slaughter cartridges
force.

[Avior]

In aviation and on the air defense missile system

[knn54]

An attempt to fight stupidity, gouging. do not care, in particular, to the allies.

[Vasyan1971]

in this direction, shooting should not be carried out due to the high probability of hitting a comrade, or block the very possibility of a shot being fired at such a moment.

Cool! It is enough to take some poor fellow hostage and go under his cover to the length of the MSL. Not to mention the different jambs, plugs, glitches and vicious Russian-Chinese hackers.

[SHURUM -BURUM]

Remove the provocative and inappropriate word "Smart" from the title and everything will immediately become much more real. The first operating automatic system "Friend or Foe" (not on light bulbs)) for the battlefield somewhere in 2010 was made by the American company CUBIC. She was publicly tested in exercises and was highly praised by the infantry and officers, as she confirmed all the stated requirements for the battlefield. I am not aware of the reasons why publications about the new achievements of Kubik stopped abruptly. Perhaps this is due to the secrecy of the topic, perhaps to some kind of dead end, which is the problem of automatic centralized delivery (with a high degree of secrecy and resistance to interception) of new passwords to the equipment of every soldier. But if certain requirements are met, the equipment can work without using the words Smart and Magic. Do not forget, if the eye does not see something, then you will not be able to shoot aimingly. And if the eye sees, then the interrogator-responder optical pair see each other even better.

[Prisoner]

Fine. The main thing is to take the "amulet" prisoner and walk arm in arm with it. They will not be able to shoot towards their own.

[SHURUM -BURUM]

Do not go for a walk)). Patenting their brainchild, the Americans thought about it.

[Chingachguk]

And if you need to call fire on yourself?
Or, in principle, cannot such situations occur in the US military?