The U.S. military had great success in Iraq and Afghanistan with newly developed GPS-based systems designed to track friendly forces and avoid fratricide incidents, but before it can widen the use of such devices it must improve the way it displays their information, according to one U.S. Air Force officer.

The military is working to reduce the size of so-called blue force tracking transmitters to make them easier for troops to carry, said Col. Kent Traylor, vice commander of Air Force Space Command’s Space Warfare Center. The ones that have seen action so far are about the size of a hardcover book, and the Air Force is hoping to get them down to the size of a 9-volt battery, he said.

But making such devices available to much larger numbers of ground troops could cause problems because the military currently is not equipped to handle the information, Traylor said in an interview Sept. 11.

The Pentagon employed several different blue force tracking devices in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. Army, for example, accelerated the fielding of a developmental system called Grenadier Brat for use in Afghanistan. The Grenadier Brat determines the position of its carrier using signals from the GPS satellite constellation, and transmits that information to commanders via communications satellites. About 1,500 of the systems have been deployed for use aboard vehicles and by foot soldiers thus far during the war on terrorism.

Another Army system that was rushed to the field after Sept. 11, 2001, was the Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below system, which in addition to tracking friendly forces uses information from intelligence satellites and other sources to keep tabs on enemies. About 1,500 such devices have been deployed thus far, with about 3,000 more to follow in the next six months.

Yet another blue force tracking device, dubbed the Movement Tracking System, was “instrumental in preventing a convoy ambush and [was] used to pinpoint the location for a medical evacuation” in Iraq, Deirdre Lee, the Pentagon’s director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, said in written congressional testimony in July. The Movement Tracking System, is similar to the GPS devices that trucking firms use to keep track of their fleets.

Though they helped reduce the risk of friendly fire incidents, the blue force tracking devices used in Afghanistan and Iraq, which numbered less than 10,000, also added clutter and confusion to the information displays of some commanders, Traylor said.

“We need to think carefully about how we use blue force tracking in the future, and be careful that we do not abuse the technology,” Traylor said during a Sept. 3 panel discussion at the Strategic Space 2003 conference in Omaha, Neb.

The military and industry must find ways to filter blue force tracking information so that individuals receive only the specific data that they need, Traylor said in the interview. While a pilot providing close air support may need the location of every soldier in a particular area, for example, a four-star general may need only basic information about the location of troop clusters, he said.

Further, avoiding accidents like the downing of British and U.S. aircraft in Iraq by a Patriot anti-missile battery has more to do with improved training and procedures than wider use of tracking devices, Traylor said during the Sept. 3 panel discussion.

Retired Air Force Gen. Howell Estes, a former commander of U.S. Space Command, said it might be difficult for some commanders to make much sense of large numbers of individual troops appearing as blips on a two-dimensional display screen.

“There is no question that blue force tracking did a magnificent job in Operation Iraqi Freedom,” Estes said. “But you need to look at what the commander needs to know, and what he maybe does not need to know.”

Estes also noted that wider use of blue force tracking devices means that sooner or later some are likely to fall into the wrong hands, potentially allowing enemies to appear to U.S. and allied commanders as friendly forces. He said this danger could be mitigated by requiring troops to punch in access codes periodically for continued transmissions.

Blue force tracking devices will become more critical as the U.S.-led war on terrorism expands and forces increasingly find themselves fighting in areas where the battle lines are blurred, said retired Army Col. Kenneth Allard, a military analyst here.

In the wake of their success in Afghanistan and Iraq, blue force tracking devices have become highly coveted among ground troops, one Army source said. “Would you want your son or daughter to be one of the troops without it?” the source said.