RFID TO SAVE TROOPS FROM 'FRIENDLY' FIRE (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by Theresa, Wednesday, March 17, 2004, 23:16 @ Theresa

Hey, It's Me! Don't Drop the Bomb

By Daniel Terdiman WIRED.COM 02:00 AM Mar. 17, 2004 PT

In the history of American warfare, around 15 percent of the country's casualties have been caused by so-called friendly fire. In recent wars, sophisticated U.S. weaponry and increasingly confusing battlefield situations have propelled that number to more than 20 percent.

But now a team from Sandia National Labs is leading a field of contenders in the creation of small radio tag sensors that could be mounted on U.S. and allied tanks and other ground vehicles, allowing friendly aircraft to recognize them and lessen the chance of an unintended aerial attack.

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John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a military think tank, agrees that the idea for radar-based anti-fratricide systems is nothing new.

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Pike applauds that idea, but wonders if such a move will ever be possible.

"It would be great to put these tags on every soldier," he says. "It would be great to implant these tags in our buttocks so that we can be tracked everywhere."

FULL ARTICLE