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Field Artillery: Future Wars

A number of current and former military officers including Britain's Major General Jonathan Bailey (68) have pointed out that for over a decade "there has been a pervasive suspicion that the days of field artillery may somehow be numbered and that the decline of that arm is mandated by prevailing trends in technology." Conversely, while this view may be common among some observers, military experts such as Command Sergeant Major Daniel Willey (6) believe that field artillery is a fixed element in the U.S. military structure and that "the fact we can understand the significant effects of the right combination of lethal and nonlethal fires and apply them accordingly assures me that field artillery will remain the premier, worldwide deployable fire support force for now and in the future." Willey (7) and Bailey (67) takes the position that the projected demise of field artillery is both overstated and unlikely because new technologies that were expected to replace field artillery have not done so and the modern field artillery unit is itself benefitting from many of these technologies.

The U.S. Army Field Artillery Training Command (1) notes that the current mission of this particular military unit is to "destroy, neutralize, or suppress the enemy by cannon, rocket, and missile fire and to integrate all fire support assets into combined arms operations." While the number and type of field artillery units and organization is one of the most expensive in the American' army's force structure, concentration areas for field artillery officers are few and this indicates mandatory interchangeability expected of those assigned to this branch. In essence, Bailey (2, 118) argues that field artillery is not disappearing but its role is changing due to specific technologies that are enhancing the capacity of ground-based forces. There is in this expert's view a "blurring of the capabilities of direct and indirect fire weapons systems" a...

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Field Artillery: Future Wars. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 16:15, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2001287.html