Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

mOdernizaTiOn effOrTs
Bradley fire support team vehicle, commonly known as BFIST
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TRADOC planners conducted a pilot study of a restructured armored division
from April to December 1976. An important conclusion was that existing armored
and mechanized divisions should be reorganized to create smaller maneuver battalions
with additional firepower and with new logistical systems and procedures
in support of the weapons systems to be fielded between 1980 and 1985. 44
In the restructured division, field artillery gained in both personnel and equipment,
and the division artillery commander was again a brigadier general rather than
a colonel. The overall structure of the division artillery changed little, but the number
of cannon increased 70 percent. The division artillery retained its headquarters and
headquarters battery, three direct-support battalions, one general-support battalion,
and one target acquisition battery, but each direct-support battalion had four firing
batteries (rather than three), each with eight (rather than six) 155-mm. self-propelled
howitzers. The firing battery was to be employed as two four-gun platoons, separated
by 400 to 1,600 meters (1,312.3 to 5,249.3 feet). One of the platoons was to have
the fire direction center and the primary technical fire direction responsibility; the
other was to have a more limited fire direction capability in its battery operations
center. Split-battery operations were intended to improve tactical operations and
survivability. The four firing batteries would also allow more effective support of
the maneuver brigades organized with four or more maneuver battalions (rather than
44 Donald R. Keith, “Forward Observations,” Field Artillery Journal, May-June 1977, pp. 3–4; Homer
J. Gibbs, “A Report on DRS,” Field Artillery Journal, May-June 1978, p. 36.