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LONDON - MPs today criticised the Ministry of Defence's "poor progress" in developing a combat identification system which could help reduce the number of so-called friendly-fire incidents.
Six British soldiers have died as a result of friendly fire, at the hand of allies, during the Iraq campaign, the Committee of Public Accounts said in a report.
It said it urged the MoD more than four years ago to improve its systems of combat identification so that the "fire power of our forces on the battlefield is directed at the enemy -- and not at our own servicemen and women or at civilians".
But progress has been poor because programmes have been put off, Committee Chairman Edward Leigh said.
"Over half of the programmes promising technological solutions to the identification of friend and foe have been delayed, deferred or rescoped," he said.
"And the department seems no further forward on co-operating with allies on developing a common battlefield target identification system."
Identification is significant as future operations are increasingly likely to be conducted in coalition with allies, it pointed out.
Combat identification is the way military personnel distinguish friend from foe and non-combatant during operations, minimising the risk of injuries and fatalities.
The single largest equipment project to help improve identification, the Battlefield Target Identification programme, has suffered considerable delays as the MoD attempts to work on a solution compatible with US systems.
"A decision ... has still not been made despite assurances from the department and the development of a successful prototype in September 2001," the committee said.
It suggested developing a more limited, national system if agreement cannot be reached soon.
The MPs did acknowledge that the defence ministry has introduced better procedures for recording incidents that occur during training, though it has not yet begun to analyse this information.
- REUTERS
