August 12, 2007:
Iraq has been
good news and bad news for American artillerymen. On the bright side, the
cannoneers finally got "smart" (GPS guided) shells and rockets. No more firing
dozens of shells per target, to make sure you took it out. Now, one or two
smart shells or rockets, and the job it done. The smart shells are important in
Iraq, because a lot of the action is in residential areas, where accuracy is
critical. Before the smart shells and rockets showed up last year, the troops
had to use smart bombs or missiles. The smart bombs were often too big (the
smallest one was the 500 pounder), and you had to call in the air force (an air
controller on the ground, was not always handy). The missiles were regularly
carried by army attack helicopters, but the hundred pound Hellfire was often
not large enough. The smart shells and rockets were just the right size, and
they were under the control of the army.
The bad news is, that you
don't need as many guns or rocket launchers to provide all the support the troops
need. Oh, the artillery are still called on to fire illumination shells (which
deliver flares that fall slowly to the ground via a parachute). This lights up
the sky for a few minutes, the better to find, or scare, the enemy during a
raid or search operation. But, basically, artillery units sent to Iraq don't
have a lot to do. Many of the artillery crews spend some, or a lot, of their
time manning checkpoints or conducting foot patrols. Artillerymen know how to
do this sort of thing. Part of their training involves infantry tactics and
techniques, so they can defend their big guns from ground attack on a fluid
battlefield.
These new smart munitions are
causing the brass to rethink how much artillery they need. Not only have a lot
of non-divisional artillery units (those assigned to army and corps
headquarters, not divisions) already been disbanded, but there is talk of
shrinking the size of the battalions currently assigned to the new combat
brigades.
Good news. Bad news. Different
times because of radical new technology.
