Four Friendly Fire Reports

I did a blog past month fishing around for what else has been done on Friendly Fire: A Friendly Fire Discussion – The Dupuy Institute.

As a result of that post asking about where else had been done, Paul Syms (UK), a former Dstl analyst, sent me the following five files. With his permission they are posted here:

First is Chuck Hawkins’ 1991 paper on the issue: “Friendly Fire Casualties: A Vietnam War Perspective”. This effort I was aware of.

C F Hawkins 1991 RVN FF

Next is Gene Visco’s 1995 presentation at ISMOR in the UK: “Friendly Fire Data and Analysis.” This effort I was also familiar with. I had a copy of different briefing from him. At one point was in my lower right hand desk drawer. I probably have a copy of that briefing somewhere in my files.

Visco 1995 Friendly fire 12 ISMOR

Chuck Hawkins and Gene Visco really pushed to get a proper analysis of the subject. I was aware of their efforts. They were unable to get a proper study funded by the U.S. DOD. Chuck Hawkins was the former VP of DMSI (Trevor Dupuy’s company before TDI). Gene Visco was with DUSA (OR) until it was shut down.

Next were two British efforts I was not familiar with, one from 2006 and one a study dated 2008 done by Paul Syms:

Gadsden & Outteridge 2006 Friendly fire HA 23 ISMOR V1.0

Syms 2008 25 ISMOR FF HA slides V1.0

Syms 2008 25 ISMOR FF HA paper V1.0

This last one is presented as both slides (34 slides) and an 8-page paper. It is pretty extensive. The slides are definitely worth flipping through.

I particularly like slides 28-29: Database size, and also the next two slides. In parallels some of the points I made in my one Phalanx article: Phalanx Article: What We Have Learned from Doing Historical Analysis – The Dupuy Institute

Share this:
Christopher A. Lawrence
Christopher A. Lawrence

Christopher A. Lawrence is a professional historian and military analyst. He is the Executive Director and President of The Dupuy Institute, an organization dedicated to scholarly research and objective analysis of historical data related to armed conflict and the resolution of armed conflict. The Dupuy Institute provides independent, historically-based analyses of lessons learned from modern military experience.
...
Mr. Lawrence was the program manager for the Ardennes Campaign Simulation Data Base, the Kursk Data Base, the Modern Insurgency Spread Sheets and for a number of other smaller combat data bases. He has participated in casualty estimation studies (including estimates for Bosnia and Iraq) and studies of air campaign modeling, enemy prisoner of war capture rates, medium weight armor, urban warfare, situational awareness, counterinsurgency and other subjects for the U.S. Army, the Defense Department, the Joint Staff and the U.S. Air Force. He has also directed a number of studies related to the military impact of banning antipersonnel mines for the Joint Staff, Los Alamos National Laboratories and the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation.
...
His published works include papers and monographs for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation, in addition to over 40 articles written for limited-distribution newsletters and over 60 analytical reports prepared for the Defense Department. He is the author of Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka (Aberdeen Books, Sheridan, CO., 2015), America’s Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam (Casemate Publishers, Philadelphia & Oxford, 2015), War by Numbers: Understanding Conventional Combat (Potomac Books, Lincoln, NE., 2017) , The Battle of Prokhorovka (Stackpole Books, Guilford, CT., 2019), The Battle for Kyiv (Frontline Books, Yorkshire, UK, 2023), Aces at Kursk (Air World, Yorkshire, UK, 2024), Hunting Falcon: The Story of WWI German Ace Hans-Joachim Buddecke (Air World, Yorkshire, UK, 2024) and The Siege of Mariupol (Frontline Books, Yorkshire, UK, 2024).
...
Mr. Lawrence lives in northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., with his wife and son.

Articles: 1648

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *