Posted on 07/18/2019 4:22:09 AM PDT by tlozo
The U.S. Army Field artillery going back again to manual methods of fire direction and gunnery after lessons of Russian intervention in Ukraine.
The U.S. Army has not had to contend with electronic warfare during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region showed an increase of electronic attack threat levels.
With the growing threat of cyberattacks, the U.S. Army Field Artillery School has placed a renewed emphasis on learning manual methods.
“Bringing back the charts is a big deal,” said Staff Sgt. Chad Payne, an instructor for the 13J fire control specialist course. “If you don’t understand the chart, you won’t actually understand what the automated system is doing for you.”
About a decade ago, the school began reducing its emphasis on teaching manual methods, said Col. Samuel Saine, assistant commandant. That’s because improvements to the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System enabled AFATADS to be used effectively in all situations, he said, and it dramatically sped up the firing process.
Then electronic warfare in Crimea and Ukraine shut systems down there, and at the same time, cyberattacks began disabling automation systems at civilian firms. These attacks “woke some people up,” Saine said.
Over the past year, the Field Artillery School commandant has made it a priority to reinsert manual or degraded operations back into the program of instruction for all courses, Saine said.
The renewed emphasis is not only in advanced individual training for new Soldiers, he said, but also in all of the officer courses from basic up to the pre-command course for colonels.
Now students begin AIT using maps to plot and they learn the math behind firing solutions.
“They’ll do manual operations until we know they fully understand the basics,” Payne said, explaining only then do students move on to the automated system.
This method provides students with a better appreciation of the concepts, he said, enabling them to “hit the ground running” at their first units.
They are also better prepared when electronic warfare takes the AFATADS system offline, he said, and degraded operations are now part of the scenario during AIT field exercises.
When systems go down, Soldiers are now trained on how to transition between the automated and manual methods, confirmed Pvt. Cynthia Antaya, a 13J student at the school.
EW can affect communications, automated systems and access to GPS. So 13J Soldiers break out their charts, pencils, plotting pins and protractors for degraded operations.
“It’s going to be important to know your charts and darts and how to go manual and still be able to continue on with your job, even when everything’s down,” Antaya said.
It’s essential that artillery sections “never sway from our No. 1 task,” Saine emphasized, “and that No. 1 task is to provide uninterrupted fires to the maneuver elements of our Army — the infantry and armor.”
Manual or degraded operations for firing howitzers are actually a 20-level task for the gunner and primarily only 10-level tasks are taught at AIT, said Staff Sgt. Rodrick Stone, an instructor for the 13B cannon crewmember course.
Some instructors, however, still demonstrate manual sighting for the students, Stone said.
“I believe it’s very important that they learn both ways, because in the event that the digital goes down, you have to have a failsafe — a backup plan,” he said.
The Field Artillery School has helped work degraded operations into the program of instruction for the Advanced Leadership Course, Saine said. Since howitzer gunners are by doctrine sergeants, learning how to manually sight howitzers is emphasized in ALC, he said.
With degraded operations, the gunner switches to a panoramic telescopic sight, Stone said. Aiming poles and firing stakes are used. “We already have an additional primary aiming reference that’s set up; he instantly sights in off of that,” Stone said.
Then the traverse hand wheel is spun manually to raise or lower elevation of the howitzer tube, he explained.
“When I was coming in, degraded operations was the only thing that was going on,” Stone said. “There was no digital systems at the time.”
Now the threat of cyber warfare once again makes degraded operations of paramount importance, he said.
“We have more capacity and capability than they do,” Saine said of the enemy, “so they’re going to try to find creative ways to degrade and deny some of our systems.”
The emphasis on degraded operations is not only happening in the schoolhouse, it’s in the field as well, Saine said. Doctrine has been updated and so have performance standards.
Training Circular 3-09.8 for fire support was recently updated with increased performance standards for manual gunnery and degraded operations.
The chief of field artillery emphasizes degraded operations at fires conferences and at quarterly meetings with division artillery commanders, Saine said.
“It’s not just a Fort Sill thing,” Saine said. “He believes very strongly it needs to be informed by the operational force.”
Preparing for EW is not only practical, he said, but it also creates a more well-rounded force.
“What we found along the way is that we actually were increasing the proficiency of our Soldiers and our leaders,” Saine said, “because it helped them understand to a higher degree how everything worked together.”
AMEN! My young hero stepped up to the plate along with many thousands of others, I have another entering the breech next year. I have much more faith in our military leadership at all levels doing the right things than I do with the democrat/socialist leadership in Congress!
I personally don’t think any contingencies are worth one drop of their precious urine, much less their blood! But sometimes our elected congressionally “inept” fools manage to get our best and brightest killed and maimed, and usually for nothing!
I’ve done my time and then some, and I don’t care too much for the folks who have to “Poo Poo and nitpick” every little thing while at the same time proudly maintaining their ignorance of military capabilities based on their extensive knowledge of playing DOOM. If they feel so strongly, then maybe they should put down their donuts and joysticks and enlist! Put their extensive knowledge and skills to the task of defending the country, put some real skin in the game, as it were.
Example: F-35 isn’t even at it’s full potential yet... so it can’t out-dogfight an F-16, whoopty freakin’ doo! It wasn’t designed to dogfight, and some country who shall remain nameless has successfully taken down the most advanced, impenetrable Russian S400 sites in Syria a few times already (in real world combat where real people die; not some video game) ... I’m willing to bet whoever it was didn’t do it with F-16’s either. As I recall, no one has ever taken credit for taking down the S400’s, though I could be mistaken... it’s been know to happen on occasion.
The F4 was originally built without missiles because some genius decided there wouldn’t be anymore dogfights.
Over 35 years ago, I recall a conversation with my battalion commander (I was S-3) about the lack of manual gunnery skills as the Army was putting the TACFIRE system in the field. Even then, manual FDC was on its way out. TACFIRE was a forerunner to AFATDS and was a huge computer in a 5 ton air conditioned van. Anyway, my colonel opined that someday in the future the Army would ask around for us old guys to teach them how to do manual gunnery when all the computers wouldn’t work.
Thanks, I was generally referring to the military. I’ve copied since BSA and was stationed at 2 USCG Radsta’s, one early morning at NRV we copied USCGC GLACIER NAAO down in the ice around Mcmurdo at barely a whisper. They had lost comms for a few days due to atmospherics. We took a few msgs before the sun came up.
USCG RMs were good ops back in the days of the steely eyed brass pounders.
You mean without guns, not missiles. Yes, that’s what I was thinking of.
Incidentally, one can see who is hearing one’s JS8 station by using this map; cooperating stations report back to a central server and display reported position:
https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html
Just select the band, the callsign (optional), the mode (like “JS8”) etc and click “Go!”
A cursor “mouse-over” then displays additional info.
Back to “charts and darts.” Very good. I lamented when they let computers take over the calculation of firing data WITHOUT maintaining a manual back up. I took basic FDC (13E) training in 1973 and went through the early years of TacFire and the introduction of the Battery Computer System of the mid-80s, when the “word” was that manual fire direction was a relic of the past.
During my recent move, I found my set of “sticks,” aka Graphic Firing Tables, that I had ordered in the mid-70’s from Ft. Sill, for M-109A1 155mm guns. I didn’t find the manual firing tables though.
Finally they have been forced to begin to see the light.
Systems always fail. Better be prepared.
Me too. I've tested my GPS in places that I know the best route, and some times the GPS, while it will get you to your destination, will go round about, and many times only that it can get you to a toll road.
I semi-trust my GPS, but if you have it set to use toll roads, it can really take you out of the best route.
“...the King of Battle, Artillery.”
Been quite a while since Infantry was known as the Queen of Battle, as in, “the King puts it where the Queen wants it”.
;^)
Just FYI, its not GPS that routes you to the wrong place, its Garmin or whoever implements the map software. GPS by itself is very reliable.
Back in the 70’s each FA battalion had a survey section that would provide the precise location for the battery. It was called ‘bringing in survey.’ Often the survey grid was brought in after we had occupied a position and begun firing using the 6 digit grid the BC or XO provided to us in the FDC. That is also how we did hip shoots, using our estimated position without waiting for survey to be brought in.
My first MOS was 05B1A4. HF, CW, and wire antennas are still in my blood. (468/f[MHz] anyone?)
Met +VE, high angle missions, illum missions, all out of memory lane for me. Thank you. And then there was the ever crucial manual computation of the firing date for the 155mm nuclear rounds, done manually using met +VE method.
Ah yes, I was wondering about that when I was a SSG in 1st Cav Division Artillery during our 2 year acceptance test for TacFire in 1979-80. I had just re-enlisted as a 96B (MI-order of battle) and reported to the HHB, 1st Cav DivArty S2 section when the S3 came into our office and ask me what I was doing, I told him that I was taking 13E MOS courses, he was very pleased with me, an MI guy wanting to learn FA. I didn’t tell him that I had just finished a 5 year enlistment as a 13E and was in the very first group of 13F’s They later sent me to the TacFire fire support officer’s course when we began to lose the original 13Cs who started with the acceptance testing.
I forgot to include that my doubts were based upon all of the problems we had with the Vietnam War era FADAC, it was constantly in the shop being fixed.
I was headed out as TACFIRE was being fielded and could see exactly what you and your battalion commander observed. I had no idea the TACFIRE required that much ancillary support with its own A/C truck-mounted van. It’s obvious the Army created a monster that would consume the ability to get the job done without massive computing support.
Was it the M-2 compass?
My walmart cashiers are pretty good. Nice dreaming... remember this is the generation who couldn’t tie shoes in kindergarten. My daughter came home upset in K because she had to help her teacher tie shoes during playtime
The only kid in a class of 20.
Other parents sent their kids to school with shoes they couldn’t tie.
These parents, of millennials, are not much younger than I am.
When I went thru the SF Qualification course a lifetime ago as a Weapons guy, we were taught FDC, Fire Direction Control, using pencil, paper, and an M16 plotting board. MBC’s, Mortar Ballistic Computers, were in use then, but never saw one. I still have nightmares about that plotting board. :-)
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