Army Aiming to Prevent Soldiers from Being Outgunned.

• Author: Harper, Jon

Long-range precision fires is the No. 1 modernization priority for the Army as the service prepares for a potential conflict against peer competitors like China and Russia.

Moscow is reportedly developing a new artillery system that has more than twice the range of U.S. howitzers, while Beijing is testing hypersonic missiles that can travel at speeds of Mach 5 or faster. After 17 years of war against low-tech insurgents, the U.S. Army plans to extend the range, velocity and lethality of its indirect fires capabilities to ensure primacy over advanced adversaries.

"We often talk about being outranged and outgunned. That will not happen in the future," Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said at the National Defense Industrial Association's Army Science and Technology Conference.

"We're going to develop long-range precision fires that are going to give us that overmatch, that's going to give us the capability that's going to hold our adversaries at bay in a way that we have never seen before," he added.

Over the next five to 10 years, the service is hoping to field a variety of new systems.

"We will start at the tactical level ... [with capabilities] significantly increased from what we have" today, McConville said during a meeting with a small group of reporters at the Pentagon.

Work is already underway for the extended range cannon artillery program, or ERCA, which is intended to increase the reach and punching power of 155mm artillery systems such as the Paladin.

The project is focused on a package of new capabilities aimed at enhancing the current fleet of self-propelled howitzers with a longer gun tube, an improved propellant, and a more lethal and aerodynamic projectile, Col. John Rafferty, the head of the long-range precision fires cross-functional team, explained in an interview with National Defense.

The technology is expected to more than double the range of existing systems, from about 30 kilometers to 70 kilometers, he said. But the goal is to extend it even more when the technology is ready.

"We can certainly shoot a lot farther than that," Rafferty said. But the equipment must have sufficient accuracy and lethality, he noted.

"You don't want to shoot a hand grenade 100 kilometers," he said. "You want to make sure that if you're going to go that far that you're delivering something that has the [desired] effects against the target sets."

The service is scheduled to begin fielding an ERCA capability by 2023.

The S&T community...