welcome to the bf2 spotting system
i hoped someday fh2 would just remove spotting the enemy on the minimap entirely. i hated that about bf2, a team can see the enemy movements on the minimap by spotting... bf42/fh1 did not have that. lame game feature by bf2 imo. devs please consider removing this feature in the future, thanks.
You have to understand the concept behind it. In a real military hierachy, a commander exercises his command through his subordinate commanders, however without information it is impossible for a commander to make decisions. Just as that is true, it is also hard for the intertwined roles of different types of units to make decisions on how to defend themselves when information is not available. That is where the scout comes in. Infantry, Armor, Naval, and Air Forces all have scouts, to adequately paint a picture of the composition, and disposition of any friendly, enemy, or neutral parties on the battlefield.
Obviously without a chain of command in the video game it is impossible to represent this sort of real time reporting on a scale. Sure there may be hardcore sims like A.C.E for ArmA 2 or Project Reality which attempt to simulate this, but for the average person its just something that requires lots of practice. Battlefield solved this issue with the spotting icons. In 1942 they were just stationary icons, where by a quick press of the function keys a player could spot an asset and have its reported location pasted on the mini-map for all to see. In BF2 and BF3 it goes a bit farther, showing-for short periods of time-the real time movement of the asset. This is simulating the idea that the observer is continually reporting for at least a matter of seconds. In BF3 red icons were added over top of the vehicles in a 3 Dimensional Mini-map to give added situational awareness to everyone on the team, making proper use of assets easier. Planes would no longer strain their eyes to see tanks on the ground, and have to study mini-maps to find it. They could simply use the reported location, and the marker to home in on a spotted enemy vehicle. Squads of infantry could point out targets on their frontage without needing a compass. While the real soldier or pilot would do all these things due to skill, learned through practice, our avatar in-game does it for us, and pastes an icon for it.
To some that sounds ridiculous, but in the vast picture of things, I believe it a great system to simplify the idea known as Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield.
As far as the spamming sound of "FEINDLICHE PANZER GESICHTET!" I remember us experimenting in private with it, and setting it to a local sound rather than a global one. Which meant you could only hear the sound within a certain distance to the man reporting it. Which worked fine. In the end though chat spam can be reduced in a hundred different ways.