As someone who was part of the 24th Infantry Division in Desert Storm, I wondered how the Libyans and NATO were communicating and coordinating their missions. Apparently, they’re not coordinating very well.
Harding says the rebels and government troops are engaged in a series of advances and retreats between the eastern coastal towns of Brega and Ajdabiya, making it difficult for pilots to distinguish between them.
NATO jets attacked a rebel convoy between these two towns Thursday, killing at least five fighters and destroying or damaging a number of armored vehicles.
The strikes, including an attack earlier this week, provoked angry denunciations of NATO by the rebels. At the same time, NATO officials have expressed frustration with the Libyan insurgents, who now view the alliance, whose mandate is limited to protecting civilians in Libya, as their proxy air force.
http://www.denverpost.com/...
NATO will investigate the incident.
http://www.euronews.net/...
Friendly fire happens in every war. That’s why communications are so important to ground troops. The Air Force and artillery need to know where ground troops will be and when they will be there to effectively complete their missions. In Desert Storm, my artillery unit fired on some gung ho cav troops because they were moving faster than was planned for. However, because we were using the same radio frequency, cav was able to call for a cease fire quickly. NATO and the rebels don't appear to have this capability. Sometimes, it’s hard to identify friendly troops and their vehicles as the dust and smoke flies in the haze of war. Hopefully, NATO and Libyan rebels find a way to communicate so that we do a better job with the friendly fire. However, I am a bit surprised that NATO doesn’t know what vehicles the Libyans are using.