Friendly fire probe raps UK's MoD

A10 tankbuster: Nine Britiish troops died in a U.S. 'friendly fire' attack by the aircraft

LONDON, England -- Britain's Ministry of Defence has been attacked for failing to protect its troops from 'friendly fire,' 10 years after UK soldiers were killed in the Gulf War by U.S. gunfire.

Nine British soldiers died when the armoured vehicle they were in was mistakenly attacked in daylight by U.S. warplanes and blasted with rockets launched from a U.S. A10 tankbuster aircraft west of Kuwait during the conflict.

But the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has failed to compile or scrutinise details of so-called 'blue on blue' casualties following the incident, UK lawmakers said in a report released Wednesday.

The incident was the last in which British troops had died through fire from its own allies.

The lives of UK soldiers were dependent on "urgent action", but the defence ministry still did not have a full "combat identification" capability, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said.

Protection for British troops from shots fired by its own allies was needed rapidly as the likelihood of soldiers serving with multi-national forces in the future has increased, it added.

"The department (MoD) needs to develop the existing methods of co-operation to address those additional risks," it said.

The report called on the government to do more to improve the identification of troops in combat and warned that the lives of soldiers were being put at risk by its failure to act quickly.

Some of the plans being looked at by the MoD are still on the drawing board, it said.

There was a "dearth" of data within the MoD on friendly-fire casualties from previous conflicts and what little information there was had been subjected to only "limited" analysis.

Troops and civilians at risk

"The lives of our forces, and indeed of innocent civilians too, depend on some urgent action," committee Chairman Edward Leigh said in a statement accompanying the report on Wednesday.

"The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been rather pedestrian in making progress on tackling the risks from friendly fire. And progress has been especially slow in relation to land equipment."

The report said calls had been made more than 10 years ago for the MoD to redouble its efforts to improve identification systems for troops in combat.

"A decade later... many of the solutions required to implement that policy are years away from fruition," it said.

"It is unsatisfactory that the department has made such slow progress in developing combat identification solutions to the risks of friendly fire, and it needs to increase the tempo of its efforts."

It also said delays in acquiring a combat identification capability were even impeding the effectiveness of some weapons systems.

The £2 billion Rapier air defence missile system had to operate at just 25% of its potential capability in order to minimise the risk of "friendly fire" casualties, the report said.

Civilians were also in danger which could undermine public support for future military operations.

Junior Defence Minister Lord Bach admitted "there is still plenty to do."

He told BBC radio that the government viewed the issue of friendly fire "extremely seriously."

"Whenever our armed forces... go into warfare, we take huge trouble to make sure that they are as safe from friendly fire as we possibly can," he said.

The ministry said in a statement: "Combat identification in modern warfare is integral to accuracy and precision.

"But it is an inherently difficult and international challenge. There are no easy answers and no technical panacea.

"Nevertheless, the UK has made a lot of progress and we are one of the leading nations in combat identification work."