Precision Artillery Fire Getting Support from Unexpected Source 

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Tapping sensors that can help guide missiles and munitions to targets deep into the battlefield is critical to long-range precision fires capability and key to operating across multiple domains. But achieving such distances requires connecting sensors and shooters that have never worked together before.

The US will use space sensors to help its artillery see and shoot well beyond current capability. An effort to achieve this capability has taken place in Europe earlier this year. 

Space sensors were linked with shooters in live-fire demonstrations in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on three separate occasions with the latest on March 23.

Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) is the US Army’s top modernization priority as it plays a critical role in the future battlefield and will be a centerpiece in the service’s future Multi-Domain Operations doctrine currently in development, according to militarytimes.com.

During the initial live-fire demonstrations, a unit conducted an operation using the weapons and ammunition associated with their mission — in this case the Army integrated the capability with the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and the M777 howitzer.

The demonstrations used high explosive rounds equipped with a precision guidance kit fuze fired from the M777 howitzer or MRLS launcher. The demonstrations gave “insight” into current capabilities “and their ability to link in novel ways to provide a capability down to the division operational level of combat,” an Army spokesperson said.

Ultimately, the Army will integrate the capability into the future Extended Range Cannon and a “full suite of Army fires platforms.” 

The Army also plans to work on an architecture that connects both kinetic and non-kinetic assets from across joint, interagency and multinational partners.