Process

• Recognition training begins in the classroom. The military gives soldiers manuals and charts that provide front and profile depictions of planes and ground vehicles. Soldiers learn to distinguish between friendly and enemy aircraft, including fighters, bombers and helicopters. World War II-era aircraft were slow enough that soldiers could distinguish between Allied and Axis markings. Most modern aircraft fly too fast and high for visual recognition, but helicopters are often exceptions and can be identified by their outlines and the distinct sounds made by different rotor blades.
  
  

World War II

• World War II saw the most emphasis on recognition training because Axis and Allied powers fielded extensive inventories of aircraft, ships, trucks and tanks. A soldier needed to distinguish American and British tanks from German tanks, but he also needed to recognize what particular enemy tank he faced. For example, a Panther was a formidable weapon but could be attacked successfully with bazookas. Tiger tanks, on the other hand, had much thicker armor and could usually only be destroyed by hitting the relatively thin armor in the back of the tank.
  
  

Cold War

• The Cold War found the United States and Soviet Union facing off indirectly in places like Korea and Vietnam. The Army taught soldiers to recognize Soviet tanks. For example, American and British tanks have sharp-angled turrets that can be readily distinguished from the Soviet Union's dome-shaped turrets. Although the threat of a direct conflict between the U.S. and USSR subsided, the Soviet Union's communist allies in Korea and Vietnam used Soviet equipment in their wars with the United States.
  
  

Afghanistan

• The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, flooding the country with tanks, personnel carriers and attack helicopters. The U.S. did not send soldiers but provided Afghan forces with antitank and antiaircraft weapons. When the Soviets finally withdrew in 1989, they abandoned large numbers of weapons and equipment. The U.S. soldiers who invaded Afghanistan in 2001 had been trained to recognize the Soviet small arms, tanks and personnel carriers used by al-Qaida and Taliban forces. Compact civilian pickup trucks armed with machine guns known as "technicals" were an exception to the Soviet-made equipment. Soldiers learned quickly to distinguish between these and unarmed civilian vehicles.
  
  

Iraq

• Saddam Hussein's army had mostly Soviet-made and then Russian-made equipment when U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq in 2003. The fast pace of the fighting and the accuracy of coalition weapons required troops to take special care to identify friendly and enemy tanks. Standard recognition procedures were less effective at night and during sandstorms, so soldiers relied more on reflective unit markings painted on equipment and high-tech solutions like night vision and thermal imaging equipment. The latter was especially helpful in allowing tankers to identify the general outlines of vehicles in total darkness despite smoke and fog.