Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

mOdernizaTiOn effOrTs
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In March 1974, the Field Artillery School initiated a re quire ments study for a
general-support rocket system. The study pointed out an urgent need for an indirect
fire system to neutralize and suppress the enemy’s indirect fire support and air defense
capabilities in an environment characterized by increased mobility and dispersion of
combat units. The anticipated enemy was expected to stress a doctrine of mas sive
armored combat power, well supported with cannon, rocket, and air defense artillery
fire. With a numerical superiority in weapons, the enemy was expected to sup press
opposing direct and indirect fire support capabilities, thus allowing his armored
units more freedom to maneuver on the battle field. A rocket system was capa ble of
achieving longer ranges without the great weight of cannon artillery, would permit a
greater volume of fire support without displacement, and would provide the needed
indirect fire support across a wider front. Maintenance costs were anticipated to be
less than those for self-propelled cannon, and support costs were also expected to
be lower because the rocket crews would be smaller. 18
Eventually called the multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS), the new weapon
was designed for mobility, flexibility, and range requirements expected on the
modern battlefield. Mounted on a modified mechanized infantry combat vehicle,
the twelve-round launcher-loader required a crew of three (commander, gunner,
and driver). Its range was to be more than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles), ensuring
coverage of about 90 percent of the targets capable of being acquired. The rockets
could be fired singly or in rapid ripples; could be controlled by a computerized fire
direction center; and could be adapted to other warheads, including smoke, scatterable
mines, and terminally guided munitions. One launcher could deliver the same
firepower as twenty-eight 8-inch howitzers. Primarily a counterfire weapon, the
MLRS could be used in suppres sing enemy air defenses, firing against high-dens ity
mechanized targets during surge periods, and providing certain interdiction fires. 19
Fielding began in 1983 and contin ued into the 1990s. Later MLRS developments
included extending the range of the rocket and using the launcher to fire the new
precision-guided Army tactical missile system. 20
Force Structure
As early as 1970, Army planners had concluded that the maneuver divisions
were too large and that they required too many nondivisional troops for support
in combat. The United States Army Combat Developments Command thus received
instructions to develop smaller divisions, and new TOEs were published in
November of that year, but with few changes in division artillery units. In the standard
infan try divisions, service batteries were reinstated as separate units in the field artillery
battalions—a change that had been recommended during the war in Vietnam.
18 McDonald, “GSRS,” pp. 12–15; Keith, “Forward Observations,” p. 3; Buel and Miller, “GSRS,”
pp. 13–15.
19 Keith, “Forward Observations,” pp. 3, 14; Richard M. Bishop, “Multiple Launch Rocket System
Tactics,” Field Artillery Journal, May-June 1985, pp. 8–9; Michael J. Cummings and Stanley C.
Preczewski, “New Kid on the Block,” Field Artillery Journal, September-October 1983, pp. 11–17.
20 See Chapter 9 for information on the Army tactical missile system.