PPT Slide
and responsive fire support to both light and mechanized forces. We are on the threshold of attaining leap-ahead capabilities with smart munitions such as the Sense and Destroy Armor (SADARM) 155mm projectile and the BAT submunitions for the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). Achieving a first round kill capability where one munition kill one or more target is a high priority goal of the FA modernization Roadmap. The programs associated with smart, munitions must be preserved and brought to fruition.
- Improve Target Acquisition. Effective target acquisition is the linchpin of destructive fires on the battlefield. Attacking throughout the depth of the battlespace ultimately hinges on the ability to locate and recognize targets in a timely and accurate manner. Problems associated with our ability to acquire targets present a critical challenge. We have reached a point where we can clearly outshoot our capability to acquire targets. The FA Roadmap is squarely focussed on developing continuous, pro-active, real time airborne and ground based target acquisition means.
- Field Adaptive Artillery Organizations. FA units must be capable of operating on a dispersed, demassed battlefield. Organizations must be able to adapt to rapidly changing situations, and must be logistically supportable.
- Reduce the Logistics Burden. Support and sustainment of Field Artillery includes everything from accuracy enhancements to maintenance and logistics. Accuracy relies on precision location of both weapons and targets. It also requires corrections for errors resulting from weather conditions and individual weapon characteristics, e.g. muzzle velocity. Tremendous demands are placed on commanders tasked with ensuring tons of artillery ammunition are distributed over great distances on a fast-moving battlefield. The Roadmap looks toward the use of precision munitions as a possible means of reducing support and sustainment burdens.
- Leverage Information Technology. Fifty years ago, the need to compute artillery firing tables drove the development of the world's first electronic, digital computer. Today, the Field Artillery continues to pioneer advances in the area of command, control, and communications using automated data processing. As the explosion in information technology continues we must ensure that fire support requirements are met with continuously updated hardware and software. In essence, the Roadmap strategy is committed to developing the requisite command, control, and communications systems (C3) required for relevant combat knowledge and a unified integration of fires and maneuver.
Methodology - A Fresh Approach. The Roadmap serves as a guide for members of FA integrated concept teams (ICTs). It provides team members with a frame of reference for examining DTLOMSS related concepts and potential capabilities while producing key insights which will then be plotted on the Roadmap. Basically, the Roadmap functions as a decision aid in the process of evaluating and resolving conceptual issues, and then determining required capabilities.
SECTION 1 - Establish a Common Grid