2010 Fires Seminar - Fort Sill, OK

[William F. Owen]

[B]
2.) Lack of ability to detect, ID, track and intercept Low/Slow UAS threats to the lowest tactical level (BCT –Div)

Concur. This is a major problem.

3.) Lack of lightweight accurate target location designation systems to support dismounted Soldiers in the IBCT

Why? The equipment exists and is even combat proven

[Xenophon]

3.) Lack of lightweight accurate target location designation systems to support dismounted Soldiers in the IBCT

1) A compass, binos, a protractor, and a map are not that heavy.
2) The VECTOR system is fielded, works pretty well, and is not that heavy.

Look at your target location training, and fix it. Then look at your PT program, and fix that. If both of those are good and you're still having problems, then look at a new system.

[SethB]

I don't know what gear they use, but a 13F assigned to the 75th Regiment carries around 120 pounds of gear.

Highlight of the show, for me, was the M119A3. A digital 105MM howitzer. Much easier to lay.

[SC6KFG68]

Joint Training, JFCOM CDR, GEN Mattis (0930-1015)
GEN Mattis’s briefing had several key points, some of which discussed were Adaptability, Trust, Spirit of Collaboration, and the Human Innovation. On Adaptability, GEN Mattis discussed how we must be fit to fight and cannot allow the enemy to dictate how we fight. He spoke on how we need to make sure we remain dominate yet relevant at the same time. He also mentioned that we are losing our precision dominance and must move toward distributive operations. Trust was an area that GEN Mattis discussed in great length. For the joint community, trust is the point of the realm in joint and coalition operations, and that success and failure are based on the level of trust that is developed between our joint and coalition partners. From a maneuver perspective, GEN Mattis offered that trust allows us to move quickly against the enemy. Another topic for GEN Mattis was the spirit of collaboration. He mentioned that no nation is strong enough to stand on its own and defend the values it hopes to continue. Along those same lines he spoke of the race for the narrative – getting the first word out in the battle of the information age- must be embraced by all leaders and commanders. Questions included use of EW within the Joint and Coalition spectrum, sharing of TTPs with our allies, and how to work interagency issues.

Good discussion on future Coalition warfare and where we are going in the Joint realm.

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LTG Vane spoke on what Army forces need to do - require a need to be executed in moderation and balance to achieve set goals – a centralized idea that drives strategic planning and leader development. He said that we have to allow Soldiers to connect with Industry, and that we have to leverage the prototype phase of development earlier. He transitioned to stating that we have to get our minds right of sending products to the field in order to identify risks and redundancies. He asked the audience to recognize that incremental improvements are a high priority as we move forward against an adaptive enemy. We must update the acquistion process to gain efficiencies. A prolonged discussion on how the Army acquires emerging systems ensued during the question and answer period.

"Buy less, more often" was a large discussion point for the group - we are doing it and have been doing it - is it better or worse, more expensive or cheaper?

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Lt Gen Remington had a relatively short brief discussing the current warfighting dynamic in Korea. From the chain of command structure to the Joint Combined Fires Planning, Lt Gen Remington discussed areas and hurdles that both help and limit his ability to command his forces. At the conclusion of the brief, there was a lengthy Q&A session where questions ranged from how long range fires capabilities play into the Joint/Combine Fires planning in Korea to whether or not the architecture exists for Army JFOs to provide targeting data to JTACs located further from the DMZ if conflict were to break out.

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LTG Hunzeker thought the title to read instead Adaptable LEADERS for Full Spectrum Operations. He opened with the current state of affairs in Iraq and discussed the recent election results and implications. He transitioned to the strategic depth of our partnership with Iraq; discussing such topics as national interest, security depth, diplomatic depth, and economic depth. Then, LTG Hunzeker discussed an IJOA operations overview where the majority of the topics discussed centered on the transition to stability operations and what is being done to ensure we meet our desired endstate. Lastly, LTG Hunzeker spoke of a need to increase and support our C-RAM efforts and offered his thoughts on where the future of counter fire and the Fires curriculum should move towards.

LTG Hunzeker then asked "is manual gunnery still a requirement that we should keep are part of our field artillery curriculum?"

thoughts?