Senior US Army officers discussed the future of units, equipment, and strategies at the recent “Land-Based Fires in Large Scale Combat Operations” conference. The event, organized by the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), focused on how field artillery and air defense units will be organized in the future and what technologies the Army is developing or acquiring.
Major General Winston Brooks, Commanding General of the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, based in Oklahoma, provided some updates. “We are transitioning our regular Army rocket battalions to a 3×9 formation,” meaning three batteries with nine launchers, while the “Army National Guard will transition to a 2×9 formation.” The objective is to increase mass and lethality in large-scale operations.
There have also been changes regarding the organization of field artillery and air defense units. For example, the Army has activated field artillery headquarters at the theater and corps levels, including the 56th Artillery Command in the US Army Europe and Africa Command and a Theater Fires Element in the US Army Pacific. While interoperability and joining forces were mentioned several times throughout the AUSA event, held in Arlington, Virginia, next to Washington, DC, General Brooks stressed air defense and field artillery “should remain two distinct branches.”
As for future systems and platforms, the Army officers at AUSA mentioned some projects in development. Colonel Guy Yelverton, Deputy Director of Acquisition and Systems Management at PEO Missiles and Space, explained, “we are looking for a cUAS fire control solution” that will “integrate more sensors “and will bring information in a more rapid manner.”
Moreover, Brigadier General Rory Crooks, Director of the Long Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team, explained that the Army is completing demonstrations from vendors selected for the future cannon artillery roadshow. Five vendors are showing industry options for mobile tactical cannons, and the last vendor will showcase its prototype before the end of this year. Crooks explained that the roadshow is helping the US Army set the characteristics & parameters for a future competitive evaluation, and vendors “want to hear from us the capability characteristics and requirements.” Brand new equipment is on the horizon for the US Army’s field artillery.
The evolution of warfare means future US Army leaders will have to multitask and face different challenges simultaneously. Brigadier General Alric Francis, Commandant of the Field Artillery School, Fires Center of Excellence, explained, “we tell every lieutenant now that comes to our basic course: you as a platoon leader are going to have to fight with counter uncrewed aerial system (cUAS) capabilities, fight UAS capabilities, and still fight and employ your platoon inside your battery formation.”
The issue of munition expenditure was also discussed. An ongoing debate is the cost of using “smart” or expensive and sophisticated munition against specific targets. For example, US Navy warships spend expensive missiles and munition to shoot down simple, cheap drones used by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
Colonel Shannon Nielsen, Chief of Staff of the All-Domain Sensing Cross-Functional Team, discussed the issue of ammo expenditure in multidomain fights and how to prioritize targets. He added that making these decisions is related to data analytics; artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) could help warfighters select the appropriate ammo for different threats. Meanwhile, General Francis noted that “smart munition gets really expensive,” so “can dumb ammo achieve the same objective?” Francis added, “there is continual exercising and simulating about what the best capability in the future is relative to cost for munitions.”
Some panelists also mentioned other emerging technologies and equipment to assist field artillery. Examples included using robots for ground reconnaissance, using more decoys, and more modern camouflage and other signature management systems for vehicles, said James Miller, Vice President for Business Development at BAE Systems. Similarly, Brigadier General Bill Parker, Director of the Air and Missile Defense Cross-Functional Team, highlighted that a new challenge is providing cUAS capabilities down to the squad levels, including passive detection, Electronic Warfare-technology, and kinetic-defeat systems.
As Major General (Ret) John Uberti, from Corporate Military Affairs-Army at RTX, summarized, at this insightful AUSA-organized event, “we all recognize every domain that we operate in is contested, congested, and more competitive than it’s ever been before.” Field artillery and air defense are no different, and the US Army is adapting.
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