Blue Force Tracking: Effects of Spatial Error on Soldier Performance

Blue force tracking (BFT) is a military technology that provides positional awareness of friendly forces on a digital map through global positioning system (GPS) technology. For dismounted soldiers, having readily available information on the location of friendly forces can be critical for mission success. However, GPS can report positions that are spatially inaccurate. The present study required 36 military participants to lead a team through a simulated mission in a virtual environment. The mission required the participant to find and support friendly forces engaged in a firefight with enemy forces. Participants had a digital map, an unreliable BFT device, or a perfectly reliable BFT device. The results indicated that participants using BFT engaged enemy forces more quickly, used their BFT to gain a wider scope of their environment, and had lower workload. For most measures, there were no significant differences between reliable and unreliable BFT, suggesting that even an unreliable BFT can provide benefits to soldier performance.