  We investigate how a quenched random field influences the damage spreading
transition in kinetic Ising models. To this end we generalize a recent master
equation approach and derive an effective field theory for damage spreading in
random field systems. This theory is applied to the Glauber Ising model with a
bimodal random field distribution. We find that the random field influences the
spreading transition by two different mechanisms with opposite effects. First,
the random field favors the same particular direction of the spin variable at
each site in both systems which reduces the damage. Second, the random field
suppresses the magnetization which, in turn, tends to increase the damage. The
competition between these two effects leads to a rich behavior.
