Beyond Destruction: Bridging the Gap in Artillery Effects Expertise
★ CW5 John A. Robinson Eagle Writing Award
In Large-Scale Combat Operations, the U.S. Army faces a persistent tactical gap in artillery employment driven not by a lack of systems, but by an insufficient understanding of surface-to-surface munitions effects among practitioners. Although doctrine such as FM 3-60 emphasizes effects-based targeting, and tools like Joint Weaponeering Software and the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System provide statistically rigorous solutions, their effectiveness at the tactical level is constrained by operator understanding, data quality, and time. Reliance on simplified adjudication tables and reductive destroy–neutralize–suppress frameworks distorts expectations and erodes confidence in fires, despite modern artillery demonstrating unprecedented precision and effectiveness in contemporary conflicts. To close this gap, the paper proposes an advanced munitions effects course developed beyond software operation — building deep, technical expertise in blast, fragmentation, fuzing, aimpoint manipulation, and nonlethal effects, modeled on established joint and sister-service programs. Centered on 131A Field Artillery Targeting Technicians as the Army's effects subject-matter experts, this course would enable more accurate, flexible, and scientifically grounded targeting decisions, ensuring artillery can fully realize its potential in LSCO under both permissive and constrained conditions.
U.S. Army professional writing
