By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
High-altitude drone attacks, AI-enabled targeting, long-range stand-off precision weaponry and the growing promise of EW and cyber weapons may lead some to suspect traditional arms like artillery might be slowly disappearing or on a path to obsolescence.
Interestingly, the opposite is true. Artillery is not only here to stay but massively breaking through with new applications, lethality and technological sophistication. What may have begun hundreds of years ago with cannon fire and been used as an “area” attack weapon decades ago … is now a completely different weapon with precision-guidance, longer-range, course correcting technology and improved targeting. Artillery is here .. and yet it is different in some respects. However, part of this does involve a paradox, as imprecise or dumb rounds capable of bombarding or overwhelming an enemy with 155m artillery is still a useful tactical option in some cases. Certainly the current stand-off in Ukraine has called attention to the enduring value of artillery, and while Combined Arms Maneuver is evolving in concept and application due to AI and other newer technologies to newer forms, traditional fires remains extremely relevant if not critical.
Video Intv. with former Maj. Gen. Rafferty, Long-Range Precision Fires, Army Futures Command on 155 Artillery Modernization … from several years ago
These variables are likely a major reason why the US Army has been massively revving up 155m artillery production and expanding the capacity of the US industrial base to accommodate increased demand.
The war in Ukraine, coupled with the US need to maintain readiness and integrate a collection of promising new guidance and range technologies have generated a vastly increased demand for artillery. Army Acquisition Executive Mr. Douglas Bush believes the Army is answering the call, as the service has expanded artillery production and has plans to increase to 60,000 rounds per month by next summer, according to an Army essay. The Army’s longer term goal is even more ambitious, as it includes efforts to reach a 100,000-round goal by 2026.
In the Army essay, Bush explains how the Army is adding new buildings and production capability at several critical locations such as the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia and Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee. The Army is also adding a new factory in Mesquite, Texas and two other facilities to load shells with explosives in Arkansas and Kansas.
Technological Advances
The war demand from Ukraine and the need to maintain US Army readiness are the most visible and often discussed reasons for increasing production, yet there is a lesser recognized but equally important need to leverage US technological advances in the realm of 155m artillery. Of course many are familiar with Raytheon’s Excalibur GPS-guided 155 artillery which blasted onto the scene during the Iraq war in 2007, and more recently programs such as Extended Range Cannon Artillery have doubled artillery’s standard 30km range to 62km. The arrival of precision-guided artillery was extremely impactful to the maturation and development of modern land war, as it enabled ground commanders to migrate the operational scope of artillery attack from purely an “area” weapon designed to “blanket” targets with suppressive fire … to a precision weapon able to pinpoint enemy targets to within a 1-meter CEP (Circular Error Probable).
Beyond this, there have also in recent years been a handful of innovations in the realm of flight trajectory, guidance and targeting which continue to enable even more operational options from commanders. A now-in-development “shaped trajectory” program, for example, is engineering artillery with a course-correcting ability to shift angles and destroy a target on the other side of a mountain or under a bridge. This involves innovative efforts to leverage the latest in guidance technologies and an ability to enable in-flight adjustments. The Navy and Marine Corps have even been experimenting with laser-guided Excalibur designed to enable 155mm artillery to track and hit moving targets as well. There are also breakthrough efforts with explosives such as the Army’s “shaped charge” program aimed at engineering newer kinds of “energetics” or “blast effects.” The rounds can be packed with submunitions of various kinds and “fuses” can be adjusted to “area-detonate,” or “penetrate” then explode. Proximity fuses can increase fragmentation and improve lethality against groups of enemy fighters or drones.
Shaped Trajectory
Several years ago, Warrior spoke with the former Director of the Army’s Long-Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team at Army Futures Command about cutting edge efforts with 155mm artillery.
“We want to get to the point where we have target seeking munitions. Counterintuitively, it lowers the cost-per-kill. These will be expensive munitions, but when you have the confidence that it’s going to seek and destroy the target you’re shooting at, it certainly lowers the number of munitions you have to shoot at it,” Maj. Gen. John Rafferty, Director, former Long Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team, Army Futures Command, told Warrior in an interview several years ago. The program has likely evolved much since this time as well.
Video Intv. with former Maj. Gen. Rafferty, Long-Range Precision Fires, Army Futures Command on 155 Artillery Modernization … from several years ago
Course correcting munitions can also massively speed up the speed of attack, as a target can be hit faster and with precision without forces needed to bombard or overwhelm an area with artillery fire.
“It helps shrink the sensor-to-shooter timeline. You need a certain level of fidelity. You need to know that the target is what you think it is. You may not have to have all the specifics that add extra time for analysts. We can close the sensor to shooter loop in a much more timely fashion which is so important, but these targets often require munitions that can course correct,” Rafferty said.
There are also efforts to engineer what could be called “smart” 155 artillery and “discriminating” artillery able to distinguish new targets and moving targets in flight, according to a previous DOD report on Excalibur.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
