Patent ID: 8125371

Claim:
A system for reducing the incidence of friendly fire comprising: (a) illuminator means for emitting an optical beam at a target, said illuminator means being mounted on a weapon aiming device and being selectively energizable by a person operating said weapon; (b) illuminating circuit means for encoding said illuminator means, said illuminating circuit means including means for encoding said optical beam with an identification code associated with said illuminating circuit means, said illuminating circuit means further comprising a “hold fire” indicator which can be activated by illuminating circuit controller means for indicating to said person that said weapon is targeting friendly forces, said illuminating means further comprising illuminating circuit receiver means for receiving a control signal indicative of the targeting of friendly forces and for causing said illuminating circuit controller means to activate said “hold fire” indicator; (c) optical sensor means, associated with an optical receiver circuit, said optical receiver circuit further comprising a short range radio frequency transmitter, said optical receiver circuit being adapted to transmit a short range radio signal which is encoded with said identification data contained in said received optical signal; (d) a local repeater comprising a radio frequency receiver for receiving said short range radio signal and a transmitter for transmitting a radio frequency signal encoded with said identification data contained in said received optical signal, and a repeater identification code representative of said local repeater; (e) a central monitoring station for receiving said radio frequency signal from said local repeater, said central monitoring station including database means for decoding said identification signals and transmitter means for transmitting a “hold fire” signal if said identification signals are both representative of friendly forces, whereby upon receipt of said “hold fire” signal by said illuminating circuit receiver means, said illuminating circuit controller means will activate said “hold fire” indicator in said illuminating circuit to indicate that said weapon is targeting friendly forces.