Desert setting tough on combat ID systems; war lessons and fratricide incidents spur upgrades to friend-or-foe technologies.

• Author: Peck, Michael

Desert conditions during the war in Iraq proved a tough environment for U.S. combat identification systems designed to distinguish, friend from foe.

Friendly fire incidents, said Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway, were "probably my biggest disappointment of the war."

Conway commanded Marine ground forces during the conflict.

"Our weapons are so accurate, are so deadly ... that when [one of them] goes off the rail or it goes out the tube, it's probably going to kill something. And so you've got to make certain that what you're shooting at is indeed the enemy," he told reporters last month.

Army and Marine combat vehicles, and troops in Iraq used (our basic identification systems, which were hastily fielded after the first Gulf War:

Combat Identification Panels: The primary means of ground-to-ground identification for vehicles, CIPs are 24-inch x 30-inch panels painted with chemical agent resistant coating and with low emissive, high reflectivity tape.

Attached to combat vehicles, CIPs appear as cold spots when seen through thermal sights. They are dark patches when viewed through forward looking infrared (FLIR) sensors in white hot mode, and white patches when seen through FLIR black hot mode.

Prices range from $1,200 for a five-panel Abrams tank kit to $489 for a three-panel set for an M113 armored personnel vehicle.

Thermal Identification Panels: Primarily for air-to-ground vehicle identification, TIPs are similar to CIPS, except that they are made out of soft cloth cut into 4 ft. x 4 ft. panels. They cost $125 per panel.

Phoenix Junior Lights: Successors to the so-called Budd Light, Phoenix Junior lights flash every two seconds and are visible through night vision goggles. Priced at about $25 apiece, they are carried by infantry as well as troops.

"In a CNN clip, you could see the flashing on the vehicles as they were going down the road. Those were the Phoenix Juniors," said Wayne Deutscher, a support contractor for the program manager, target identification and meteorological sensors at Fort Monmouth, N.J. They are powered by 9-volt batteries good for 100 hours, with each soldier receiving six batteries.

Glo-Tape: Used by combat personnel, these 1 inch by 1 inch plastic squares are worn on the top and rear of a helmet as well as both shoulders.

They appear as glowing spots in an infrared beam emitted by night vision goggles.

They are sold in packages of 144 squares for $70. Enough tape was sent to Iraq to outfit 50,000 troops.

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