Many are asking what is Blue Force Tracker and when did it enter the Services.
Contrary to current media and blog reports it has been around for some time.
During the 1990 invasion of Iraq, Blue Force Tracker (Command & Control Vehicle, GPS/satellite and laptop computers) were placed in “test” U.S. Army and Marine Corps combat vehicles.
My personal experiences came in January 1991.
On January 29, Iraqi forces in Kuwait crossed the Saudi Arabian border and attacked and occupied the lightly defended Saudi city of Khafji with tanks and infantry. The Battle of Khafji ended two days later when the Iraqis were driven back by U.S. Marines supported by Saudi and Qartari forces. The U.S. and Saudi air power provided close air support.
The Marines were lucky in that they had a Reconnaissance unit trapped in the city and from the top of a city building, the Marines provided on scene actionable Intelligence that helped air and ground forces repel the attack.
Parts of my battalion were in reserve to help stop the Iraqis from moving further south.
Using BFT from a 1st MARDIV unit I was able to see in near real time what the future battlefield would look like to keep U.S. forces informed of where our units were. Some data was being passed on Iraqi forces but that was only good for the last time it was recorded.
Blue Forces Tracker 2 (BFT2) will have a ten second (or less) delay between satellite updates. The BTF2 network will also allow users to send more information to each other, including attachments. BFT2 can be used in automated command and control systems that can pass more information, more quickly, between a command post and the troops in combat.
Surprisingly, we have had very little reports on the use of BFT in Iraq or Afghanistan.
