[Britton J Wingfield]

They can use math, if they know how. I had a college algebra teacher that was a former Ukrainian artillery officer. He said he could put a shell on a single house 12 miles away in high wind. That was his answer to students who questioned the real-world applications of his subject matter :)

[Natural Law]

Your teacher was full of BS. They would of course use the math in their FDC function, but then they would have to fine tune.

[Chuckster]

Yup. I learned math at Ft. Sill. That was back when we used slide rules, graphical and tabular firing tables, pencil and paper to compute ballistic data. No computers in those days.

I can't believe the Iraqis registered (There must be a joke here about registering your guns). They had to know they were giving away their position. Surely they had time to survey in their own country. It also appears, from the article, that they had their antenna co-located with or near the battery. On the modern battlefield, an antenna is like a giant illuminated bullseye for opposing artillery. These guys are unbelieveably inept.