FIRES FOR EFFECT: 10 QUESTIONS ABOUT ARMY LONG-RANGE PRECISION FIRES IN THE JOINT FIGHT
WHAT IS THE MILITARY PROBLEM?
U.S. military forces are outgunned and outranged.4 The 2019 dissolution of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and Russia, which prohibited indirect fire systems with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, altered the strategic landscape. Russia, long in violation of the prohibition on these weapon systems, and China, not a signatory to the treaty, had both already fielded multiple rocket and missile systems with ranges well beyond 500 kilometers.Belated recognition of both Russian and Chinese land forces’ predominance in intermediate and long-range rocket and missile systems—an essential component of both Chinese and Russian A2/AD complexes—and removal of the INF constraint validated the decision to pursue LRPF in Army modernization efforts in order to address this gap as part of its contribution to the joint fight.
WHERE IS LRPF LIKELY TO BE NEEDED?
The bipartisan, congressionally-mandated NDS Commission found that Army long-range fires were needed in both the USINDOPACOM and USEUCOM AORs:Of the five competitors and adversaries named in the NDS, four—China, North Korea, Russia, and terrorist groups—are active in the Indo-Pacific region. Deterring aggression in this region requires establishing a forward-deployed defense-in-depth posture. Protecting U.S. interests from China and Russia will require additional investment in the submarine fleet; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets; air defense; long-range strike platforms; and long-range ground-based fires [emphasis added].6
Regarding USEUCOM and the Korean Peninsula, the Commission stated:
The United States will need capacity enhancements in the Army. More armor, long-range fires [emphasis added], engineering, and air-defense units are required to meet the ground-heavy challenges posed by Russia in Eastern Europe and while maintaining a robust deterrent to aggression on the Korean Peninsula.7
The increasing demand signal for land-based long-range fires continues from both USINDOPACOM and USEUCOM. In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on 9 March 2021, Admiral Phil Davidson, Commander of USINDOPACOM, stressed the importance of land-based LRPF:
USINDOPACOM requires highly survivable, precision-strike fires featuring increased quantities of ground-based missiles and improved air and long-range naval fires capable of ranges over 500 km [emphasis added]. These fires must be supported by electronic warfare, space, cyber, and over-the-horizon radar capabilities. They must also be operationally decentralized and geographically distributed to provide a credible, offensive, and conventional deterrent to assure U.S. freedom of action.8
Underscoring its reliance upon LRPF, USINDOPACOM requested $408 million for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 and $2.91 billion for FY2023–FY2027 for land-based “highly survivable, precision-strike fires that can support the air and maritime maneuver from distances greater than 500 km” as part of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.9
WHAT ARE THE ARMY LRPF SYSTEMS?
The U.S. Army’s top modernization priority since 2017, LRPF consists of four signature programs being developed under the direction of the Army Futures Command (AFC) cross functional team (CFT) for LRPF. These programs are: Extended-Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA); Precision Strike Missile (PrSM); Strategic Long-Range Cannon (SLRC); and the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW). Other LRPF initiatives include conversion of a Navy Standard Missile (SM)-6 battery by 2023 and Tomahawk missiles to engage moving targets, both on land and at sea, at ranges from 500 to 1500 km.ERCA. The ERCA is intended to hit point targets 70 kilometers away—more than twice the 30 kilometer range of the M-109A7 155 mm howitzer. It consists of the rocket-boosted XM1113 shell and a longer howitzer barrel (58 caliber versus the current 30 caliber) adapted to the current M-109A7 Paladin system, which increases the projectile’s velocity before exiting the muzzle. Plans call for an 18-gun battalion to enter service in 2023.14
PrSM. The PrSM is a surface-to-surface, all-weather, precision-strike guided missile, fired from both the M270A1 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and M142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).15 As the replacement for the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), PrSM doubles ATACMS’ current rate-of-fire with two missiles per launch pod. It is designed to attack threat air defense systems, missile launchers, command and control (C2) nodes, troop assembly/staging areas and high-payoff targets throughout the battlefield at ranges of more than 500 kilometers.16
SLRC. Perhaps the most controversial of the LRPF systems, the Army is examining the feasibility of developing a cannon that can fire a projectile at hypersonic speeds up to 1,000 miles to engage air defense, artillery and missile systems and C2 targets.17 The SLRC is comprised of a cannon, prime mover and trailer; it also has projectiles that are capable of delivering massed fires at strategic ranges.18 The SLRC battery will include four cannons and heavy equipment transporters for the battery’s other equipment.19
LRHW. In 2019, OSD directed the Army to develop a hypersonic weapon system. (Hypersonic weapons can fly at five times the speed of sound and operate at varying altitudes, making them much more difficult to intercept than missiles that have a ballistic trajectory.) Through a joint agreement on design, development, testing and production with the Navy, Air Force and Missile Defense Agency, the Army is working to field hypersonic weapon systems using a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB). The Navy leads design of the C-HGB; the Army leads production and building of a commercial industrial base. This approach enables the services to leverage one another’s technologies, while tailoring them to meet specific requirements for air, land and sea.20 The Army plans to field a prototype long-range hypersonic weapon battery by FY2023.
ORGANIZATION
The multi-domain task force (MDTF). As the signature formation in the development of the MDO concept, the MDTF incorporates a Fires Brigade, air defense artillery and a unique organization—the Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare and Space (I2CEWS) battalion—to converge effects and fires across domains. The Army plans to form five theater-level asset MDTFs—two for USINDOPACOM, and one each for USEUCOM, for the Arctic and for worldwide response.Theater Fires Command. The Army also plans to develop a theater fires command both in USEUCOM and in USINDOPACOM to control theater long-range fires systems. This headquarters will be key to maintaining momentum in the ongoing process to develop and refine targets to support a land campaign and to help build the multi-national fires team during competition in support of the COCOM.
While there is continuing development within and among these new organizations, the maturing relationship between MDTF, Theater Fires Command and the Combined Air Operations Center promises to enhance the COCOM’s ability to achieve desired effects across all domains. (This would suggest that the establishment of a joint fires command would optimally integrate multi-service and multi-domain capabilities.)
Doctrine. Doctrine is being driven by joint and Army concepts of JADO, JADC2 and MDO—and by lessons learned during experiments and exercises. In addition to the fires component of LRPF, mobility, survivability and logistics considerations will play a significant role in its efficacy. This doctrine and the demands of COCOMs should drive the development and refinements of various joint concepts of operations (CONOPS) to fully exploit the potential of new systems and concepts.
ISR and Targeting. There is much yet to be done on joint and combined ISR, sensing and targeting. How will all of these systems be managed, and what sensors are needed or must be linked to get the right system on target? Integration of service-specific systems and prioritization of sensors and satellites are several of the key issues that should be addressed and informed by JADC2 and enabled by artificial intelligence. In a key effort, the Army is developing the Synchronized High Optempo Targeting (SHOT) fire support application to run on the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) Ground Station. (TITAN leverages space and high-altitude, aerial and terrestrial sensor layers, which provide both targetable data to fires networks and multi-discipline intelligence support to targeting—and they also provide situational awareness and understanding for mission command.31) The Army’s LRPF CFT and its CFT for Assured Position Navigation and Timing are central to strengthening this critical linkage.
Calibrated Force Posture. The Army postures its forces globally through a combination of forward-stationing, rotational presence (in support of DFE) and Army Preposition Stocks. While the Army’s intent would be to have MDTF elements as an “inside force,” already in an adversary’s A2/AD bubble, political, not military, considerations will be the determinant of their location. Permission, and even advocacy, from host nation governments will be necessary, similar to what is required to station heavy bombers there or make a port call.32 Strengthening and expanding alliances, partnerships and status of forces agreements will be important to this ongoing effort.
