they might think about teaching Morris Code again too...Pathetic, just pathetic to have abandoned “manual methods”. Imagine someone needing artillery support in a very bad way and their devices don’t work, or worse yet, have been hacked so fire is directed onto our own troops.
Maybe the navy best learn what a compass, sextant and navigation maps are good for too.
Great idea,glad to see it back.
Aye, sir. The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain. [hands McCoy a fistful of computer chips] Here, Doctor, souvenirs from one surgeon to another. I took them out of her main transwarp computer drive.
Montgomery Scott Star Trek 3
This reads as if the US Army had units in Ukraine fighting their dirty war for them.
... did we?
they might think about teaching Morris Code again too...One big benefit of being proficient in working without the computer, is being able to say “Hey, wait a minute” when the computer starts giving you bad answers.
There WILL come a day when we discover that foreign made components (or US made components designed by people not loyal to us) have a “remote trigger glitch”. As in the pilot episode of Battlestar Galactica.
No school like the old school.
I just wonder without GPS how they will position the battery? Our exercises were kind of phony since the survey crew went out and found the position and gave us precise grid numbers, but I just don’t see it happening under fire.
The navy should take heed and remove the plugs from the 16” guns on those old battleships and get them seaworthy again. You never know when dumb technology is going to be needed again.
What I see is a military leadership; officer and enlisted, smart enough to think about the future and adjust based on current conditions.
It sometimes makes me shake my head when some “I-know-everything” FReepers chime in about how stupid the military is or this or that decision or weapon is so wrong or outdated.
The military is like Allstate—”You’re in good hands.”
Sure, FUBAR’s happen, but generally we should be proud of the American fighting force. They’re good at what they do.
I remember when automation hit the FA and the GIGO Factor jumped! Seeing 1600 mil firing errors, “Because that is what came out of the computer, Sir!”.
If you are going to be a Field Artilleryman, you have to know ballistics. As a Fire Direction Officer, you have to have the ballistics table in your head so that when you hear a range, quadrant and charge, you have to know it is in the safe zone. Many times, I caught errors, just by listening.
Computers are great, but just because they go down, you are still obligated to do your job. Grunt and Treadheads are counting on you!
Field Artillery, Often mistaken for the Wraith of God!
Good first step. Now get the girls out of FA that cannot lift an artillery round to load a howitzer and other vital aspects of being in the King of Battle, Artillery. (Retired Army Artillery Officer)
Reminds me of the Naval Academy bringing back teaching navigation using a sextant and chronometer.
This brings to mind how in Vietnam some of our planes only had missiles but not guns, and if they ran out of missiles, they couldn’t dogfight?
Map spot sun shot. Simple.
After the Chinese shoot down the GPS satellites, USN will be sorry Annapolis dropped celestial navigation by hand, as well.
This article warms the cockles of my old Redleg heart. Comes now the misty memories of the GFT and TFT issued to us at FA Officer Basic Course, the TFT full of columns of mysterious figures and GFT appearing to be the easier solution, only to face learning how to apply MET data to the GFT for a better firing solution. Then, off to missile school to compound the learning with trig and log tables to get the manual solution within the performance standard time.
I’d be surprised if anybody below the rank of E-8 has actual experience in setting up firing stakes, the infinity collimator, or using the sun filters on the M2 aiming circle to lay the battery using the sun as the EOL.
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.