The plan was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in January after an investigation by the The New York Times discovered that thousands of civilians in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, including children, were killed by US airstrikes conducted with imprecise targeting and deeply flawed intelligence.
"The actions below promote training and education as well as improved policies to help recognize and mitigate cognitive biases and to otherwise reduce their adverse effects on decision-making during the joint targeting process," the report, released on Thursday, said.
The report also calls for the creation of a "red team" that can serve as a devil’s advocate and help explore alternatives in plans and operations.
The Times had studied 1,311 documents from a hidden Pentagon archive, concluding that the civilian death toll was much higher than the 1,417 civilian deaths reported by the US military in Iraq and Syria, and the 188 deaths reported in Afghanistan since 2018.
One of the most egregious examples was an August 29 US airstrike that killed ten innocent civilians in Kabul based on faulty intelligence. In December, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said no US troops would be punished for the incident because it was the result of a breakdown in process, not negligence.