The Artillery Systems That Could Be Futures Command’s First Big Success

Real Clear Defense ^ | February 28, 2019 | Dan Goure

[C19fan]

The emerging security environment, marked by an intensifying technological competition among the major powers as well as the proliferation of advanced of military hardware, is leading to future battlefields that will be faster paced and highly lethal. Units that stay in one place too long are toast. The Army Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, has observed that “if you stay in one place for longer than two or three hours, you will be dead.”

General Milley was an optimist. The Russian Army has developed a sophisticated indirect fires capability that employs electronic warfare and unmanned aircraft systems for reconnaissance and targeting in support of the rapid delivery of massed artillery and rocket fires at ranges that exceed those of U.S. and allied systems. In the 2014 Ukraine conflict, Russian Army units were able to find, fix and destroy units that stay in place for more than a few minutes with concentrated long-range fires.

[C19fan]

Self-propelled artillery systems on trucks or other light skinned vehicles are already being fielded by other armies. The French use the CAESAR system which is a 155 MM howitzer mounted on a flatbed. A similar system is the Swedish developed Archer.

[colorado tanker]

Mech infantry had sp artillery when I was in. Surely they still do.

I'm shocked but not surprised they stuck the Stryker brigades with towed artillery. Are those brigades worth anything in a war against an enemy with any sophistication?

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[rey]

Geez. I entered the Marine Corps in 81 and we trained in scenarios that assumed if you were on the radio more than 3 or 4 seconds, you were triangulated and a couple of years later we assumed after mortars or Artie fired they were triangulated. 3-4 hours would have been a luxury.

[IndispensableDestiny]

Mech infantry had sp artillery when I was in. Surely they still do.

Mech Infantry as you knew it now exists inside an Armored Brigade Combat Team. The ABCT has an artillery battalion equipped with M109 SP howitzers.

[bravo whiskey]

The South Africans have the RINO 6x6 SPA, the Czechs have the DANA 8x8 refitted from 152 to 155. My mortar plt in Germany in the late 70s was pretty low on the counter battery target list and we moved after 2 fire missions. 2-3 hours in same spot after firing is an invitation.

[Lysandru]

I have been saying since the freaking Cold War that towed artillery in a full-on mechanized war are just glorified targets. For my money, only airmobile and airborne units can justify having towed guns. And if the new HMMWV-mounted gun is practical, then that should be the standard gun for direct support cannon units in airborne and airmobile formations.