Cannons, rockets and missiles: a growth industry in the Army.

• Author: Erwin, Sanda I.
• Position: Army Future Force

The Army is expected to increase investments in cannon artillery, missiles and rockets, in an effort to extend the range and improve the accuracy of these weapons.

Growing requirements for advanced fire-support technologies are shaped both by lessons from Iraq and by the Army's transition from a division- to a brigade-centric force structure.

The experience in Iraq reinforced the notion long held by cannon artillery advocates that ground troops cannot rely solely on close-air support and need their own long-range weapons, especially during bad weather.

"Artillery and mortars are more responsive than close-air support," said Col. Nathaniel H. Sledge Jr., Army program manager for combat ammunition systems.

Just three years ago, artillery weapons were falling out of favor at the Defense Department. The high-profile cancellation of dm Crusader howitzer signaled that the future was not in artillery, but in aircraft-launched precision strikes.

But even though artillery proved its worth in Iraq, the Army recognizes that current munitions are far from suitable for low-intensity conflicts and urban warfare. Because artillery systems generally are considered to be area weapons, they greatly raise the risk of civilian and friendly casualties.

Within the Army, meanwhile, officials are debating whether the best way to improve the precision of long-range fires is with cannon artillery, or with missiles and rockets.

Smart missiles and rockets will be essential weapons in the Army's new "brigade units of action" that will have to operate over large areas, ranging from 50 to 60 square miles, said Brig. Gen. Mike Cannon, Army program executive officer for tactical missiles.

"We have to extend our sensors, see the enemy in that area, precisely," Cannon said.

As the Army continues to transition to a brigade-based structure, the needs for fire-support systems will grow. Each new brigade will require an additional cannon battalion. The heavy brigade fire battalion will be equipped with 155 mm howitzers. The infantry brigades will have 105 mm cannons.

Each brigade also will have an organic rocket battalion, with a mix of MRLS (multiple launch rocket system) and HIMARS (high mobility artillery rocket system).

The Army research and development center at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., is working on several technologies to improve the accuracy of cannon artillery weapons.

Current systems are intended to be area suppression weapons, and are far from surgical, noted Stephen...