The role of GPS in Blue Force Situations

GPS Tracking is now common place in the consumer world, but what people don't always realise is how pivotal it is in the military. Blue Force is a term that is often used in the military, meaning friendly forces, or those on your side, and the tracking element of the phrase "Blue Force Tracking" relates to the ability to trace the location of the army personnel.

Blue Force Tracking is ideal, not only to be able to locate the exact position of troops on the ground but also to be able to communicate with them and trace expensive assets.

Military Personnel are often asked to go to work in unchartered and foreign environments. They often do not know the area nor the climate of where they are asked to go to work. GPS tracking devices act as their third eye. By being able to pinpoint the position of forces on the ground, the GPS technology provides the advantage to personnel in a central command post, enabling them to communicate with troops on the ground to help avert conflict, danger and crisis.

GPS and Blue Force Tracking isn't just restricted to personnel. Military assets can cost billions of dollars, and can be destructive if they get into the wrong hands. That is where GPS technology can come into its own. By attaching GPS tracking devices to military assets the forces can keep track of assets should they come into enemy hands, allowing for easy retrieval if required. Valuable military assets that need to be traced could be anything from jet fighters to general artillery and weapons.

GPS technology is not only about the ability to pinpoint the location of personnel, it also combines the ability to be able to communicate with the troops on the ground without relying on local GPRS (Cell) transmitters. The advantage of this over local Cell Towers is that GPS technology does not require local transmitters as it uses GPS Satellites that orbit the earth, so as long as the terrain is clear the signal strength is more than often reliable.

GPS Technology isn't just an aid to Blue Forces in terms of location management, its a way of ensuring that troops are safe and kept away from potential crisis situations. Not only can the GPS technology be used to keep tabs on the friendly forces, it can also be used to keep a location on the enemy and helping to keep the friendly forces away.

In summary, in the Military, the use of GPS Technology and GPS Tracking devices is like having someone looking down from the sky to manage the location of the troops and ensuring that crisis management is at the forefront of the mind at all times.

What is Blue Force Tracking?

Many people are familiar with GPS Tracking technology and applications in the consumer market. What people probably don’t know about is Blue Force Tracking. So what is it?

Blue Force Tracking (also commonly known as BFT) is a US Military term that describes a GPS Tracking System, providing the military command with location data about its forces and assets.

Why the colour Blue? In NATO Military symbology the color blue is used to identify friendly forces.

Blue Force Tracking systems essentially combine the use of Computers, Satellites and hand held GPS receivers. The GPS receivers are carried by personnel (or Blue Personnel if you like) or fixed to Military assets. These receivers then transmit data, on a regular basis, via the network of satellites that orbit the earth and send the information back to a central command post.

The central command post will then have computers than can interpret the GPS location data and output it to a map overlay on a screen. This gives the command post a very good idea as to the location of a vehicle, asset or personnel which means that in the event of a crisis or high risk situation they can react very quickly in deploying teams to the exact last recorded location that the GPS Tracking device recorded.

Blue Force Tracking Solutions are not only able to send location information back to a central command post, but can also be used as a communications platform. For example text messages, both containing images and text can be sent back to the command post and Blue Force Tracking systems are able to report the locations of enemy forces. This is particularly useful for strategy when it comes to planning routes via potential threats such as damaged bridges, mine fields etc)

Blue Force Tracking Solutions will continue to be improved and developed to ensure the continued safety of military personnel and the protection of assets that cost millions of dollars. It’s no exaggeration when people say that this precision technology plays such a huge part in saving lives of Blue Force Personnel and there is absolutely no doubt that with it in place, lives are saved.