Friend or foe? Marines test combat ID advances in war game.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Identification

U.S. Marine Corps M1A1 Abrams tanks, amphibious assault vehicles, light armored vehicles and armed Humvees came rumbling into the dirt crossroads of the small, heavily defended village, guns blazing.

During the confusing melee, it was difficult to tell friendly forces from the enemy. Unintended consequences could include friendly casualties, a tragic part of warfare that seemingly won't go away.

This time, however, the gunfire was simulated--and the Marines were equipped with the newest combat identification technologies that are being evaluated by the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.

The event was a one-day exercise conducted this summer in and around Dodds City, one of the combat training towns at the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The exercise--sponsored by the Joint Forces Command and the Army's Communications Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, at Fort Monmouth, N.J.--was part of the coalition combat identification advanced concept technology demonstration, a multiyear project designed to improve combat ID in ground and close air support environments.

It also was an element of a much larger combined joint task force exercise, dubbed CJFEX 04-2, which involved more than 28,000 troops from the Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, and special operations, as well as soldiers from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Netherlands and Peru.

The combat ID exercise was much smaller. Altogether, it involved about 300 troops from four different battalions of the 2nd Marine Division, which is based at Camp Lejeune, plus small contingents of Marines from the United Kingdom and France.

The opposition role was played by 40 members of the 1st Battalion of the 10th Marine Regiment. Their equipment for the occasion included some Soviet-designed platforms, including a BMP armored vehicle and a T-72 tank that flew what appeared to be a pirates' black flag, complete with a white skull and crossed bones.

The purpose of the exercise was to assess the military utility of combat ID technologies and accelerate their fielding, explained Army Lt. Col. Mike Fowler, chief of the ground combat division of the joint combat identification evaluation team.

JCIET, headquartered at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is part of the Joint Forces Command. It was established a decade ago to foster improved methods of combat ID for all of the military services.

JCIET conducts large-scale tactical evaluations and employs sophisticated equipment...