Randy Haskin wrote:
Sorry I'm chiming in on this one late.
I'm not sure *exactly* what you're asking, because there can be a couple different meanings of "ID Friendlies" depending on the situation. In a situation where I'm not being controlled over the radio (doctrinally, not actually "close air support" because of location on the battlefield), and thus don't have the ability to have someone on the ground talk my eyes on to their position, then it is purely my ability to visually ID the type and nationality of vehicles, etc, to tell who is good and who is bad. There is a good amount of effort spent training crews visual ID skills, but there are obvious limitations at the altitudes and speeds that I was working with. I'm sure the rotary wing guys are a ton better at it than I ever was.
When you are able to talk to someone on the ground, then you can coordinate some method of identifying the friendly position. During the day, it will be some sort of visual signal, like a series of mirror flashes, a VS-17 identification panel, colored smoke, or even just a recognizable pattern that vehicles are parked in or the unique shape of a structure or building friendlies are located in. At night, there are various methods, but most revolve around infrared and near-infrared markers that can be seen with Night Vision Devices and IR cameras on aircraft: IR strobes, IR laser pointers, IR reflective panels, etc.
Also realize that the ID requirements are different depending on where all of this is happening, and weather or not ordnance is going to be dropped/shot at any point during the scenario.
As mentioned, the most basic visual identification technique the VS-17 panel, a big piece of orange nylon that ground units can drape on vehicles or lay out on the ground near their position. I'll be honest, I never actually saw a VS-17 in all the time I was doing CAS in the F-15E...and I was looking for 'em. Just going too fast and too far away to see a large flag-sized piece of fabric.
There ARE some electronic methods that can be used, and they're generally as a group called "Blue Force Tracker". The F-15E did not have access to any of those when I was flying 'em, but some F-16s and A-10s have/had a system called SADL (Situational Awareness Datalink) that sort of worked with Blue Force Tracker. The Rules of Engagement in all of the combat zones I've worked in, though, would not allow information from datalink feeds in and of itself to be the only means of ID'ing friendly locations -- it always had to be backed up with some sort of talk-on or other marking.
My interest lies in what the current identification systems are. The orange panel seems way to easy to spoof. I'm also curious as to wiether there radio emission protocals for ground troops or is this not considered. I wish I could say why but I can't at the moment.
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