Despite advancements in modern technology the rates of casualties caused by friendly fire have increased. Studies show that technology on its own cannot eliminate friendly fire casualties due to the involvement of human factors. This thesis aims to develop a model to increase understanding of fratricide. The model is based on the relationship between situation awareness and confidence, with the hypothesis that fratricidal events are characterised by poor situation awareness and high level of confidence.
The theory development is achieved through three case studies of fratricide in air operations, using mainly official reports and video footage in a qualitative analysis. The result of the thesis does not show a relationship between situation awareness and confidence according to the hypothesis. Situation awareness is poor in all three cases studied. Confidence however is considered low in two out of three cases, opposing the hypothesis and demanding further studies of causal mechanisms explaining the problem of fratricide.