The U.S. Army is updating its conventional fires strategy based on Ukraine War realities
General James Rainey, of the Army Futures Command, declared that the U.S. Army is generating an updated strategy for conventional fires. Actions taken by both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries are presenting scenarios that will factor in to how the U.S. plans and prepares for future wars. Lessons learned from the Russo-Ukraine War are also providing a wealth of information to factor into strategy and training related to other aspects of war.
From Defense News:
The Army is building 20 prototypes of the ERCA system: two for destructive testing, and the remaining 18 for a battalion set to receive the weapons by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. That unit will then run the cannons through a yearlong operational test.
Observations in early testing of prototypes are showing excessive wear on the gun tube after firing a relatively low number of rounds. The Army plans to gather more information throughout operational testing to determine reliability.
The service is already looking at ways to improve the rate of fire before the gun tube requires replacement through adjustments in materials used and the design of the tube, adjustments to propellants, and the design of artillery rounds fired from the cannon.
ERCA’s role in the strategy remains to be seen, but the prototype program is experiencing some delay, according to Doug Bush, the Army’s acquisition chief.
Even so, “the requirement for extended-range fires is absolutely a valid requirement,” Rainey said.
“I think everything we’re seeing in Ukraine [is] about the relevance of precision fires, all the emerging technology, but the big killer on the battlefield is conventional artillery, high-explosive artillery,” he said.
Defense News provides the balance of the story here.
Category: Army, Army News, Military issues
Hopefully they’re not learning all the wrong lessons.
The Ukraine does not have near the fires capability that the US has. They have no air power, no deep fires, no counter fire capability. I’m not saying there are not lessons to be learned, but learning how to fight a war of attrition, instead of using overwhelming fires to quickly devastate and destroy your enemy isn’t one that needs to be learned.
I do find it interesting that the long awaited day of the low cost drone has arrived. The answer to that should be DEW and not missiles. Just isn’t any way to test that right now.
Well, at least they are paying attention as opposed to updating make up regulations for biological men.
I am filled with confidence in our military and political leaders.
The reporter was twisting words by calling them “illegal cluster bombs.” There is an international treaty prohibiting their use. The United States, Ukraine, and The Russian Federation did not sign/ratify that treaty.
The meme creator also twisted words, as Jen Psaki specifically responded to the part of the question regarding violence against civilians being a war crime.
We have a number of Democratic congressmen that want to ban them in the United States. There might be one Republican on board as well. A number of countries that are signatories to the treaty still use them of course.
5 comments and no KoB
He must be resting up for the WOT.
😉
The Gun Bunny got pulled away for an unplanned, last minute escort mission early this morning, Chippy…that ran waaaay yonder longer than it was supposed to have. Barely got back to Firebase Magnolia in time to even be a close contender. CW won the coveted TAH Friday WOT by the margin of how long it took Chromie to open the TAH page…and the ten count I always give before hitting “Post Comment”. Since then I’ve chased down some FGS leads for tomorrow, played catchup on today’s threads, fed the fur babies, and day dreamed about OAM. *sigh*
Sooo…been a long minute since I served and this is a studied opinion v a learned one but here’s my take. We study some things too much and others not enough. It’s all well and good to look at the longevity of the tubes, but I think we need to look more at the ability to shoot and scoot. Counter battery fire is a cast iron bitch that will ruin your whole day and with today’s electronics, your firing position is plotted and return rounds heading your way before your round gets very far down range. We spend too much time studying and preparing to fight the next war using the same general weapons and tactics that we used in the last war that we actually won, totally, which was WWII. We won a lot of battles since then, but overall, we’ve lost the wars. We have not fought a true “peer” opponent since then. Your guns need to have not only superior fire power, but also superior protection, from the air and the ground.
Tell politicians to GTFO conducting a war. War means fightin’ and fightin’ means killin’. Have 1 HMFIC, a Military Man, that understands that his troop’s only mission is to win and then give him the tools to do it with. No matter how good our high priced toys are, we don’t have the logistics to support a protracted fight, nor the industrial base to produce more. Quantity is a quality of its own.
YMMV
I hope that they are going above and beyond! Our next near peer may have their s—t together a little more.
There is currently only 1 base that has the ranges necessary to fire the ERCA at full charge and that’s Fort Bliss. Adds a complication if the Army decides to add that to the MTOE.