Operational fires pilot to kickstart US Army's artillery revamp

A new operational fires pilot effort could transform the way the US Army calls for fires process, injecting fuel into the army's long-time effort to more quickly connect sensors and shooters in the artillery world.

Kentucky National Guard's 138th Field Artillery Brigade (FAB) got the official word that it had been designated an Operational Fires Command (OFC) in November 2024, Lieutenant Colonel Robbie Andersen, brigade commander of the formation, told Janes on 18 December 2024. The formation – subordinate to V Corps – would be the only one of its kind since the army made those formations obsolete decades ago.

The existence of the pilot was unveiled in early December as officials praised the army's modernisation of the artillery world. The pilot is just one of several new artillery formations such as 56th Artillery Command in the US Army Europe and Africa and a Theatre Fires Element in the US Army Pacific, said Major General Winston Brooks, commanding general of the Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

These composite fires formations at echelon “will employ advanced technologies to deliver lethal fires integrated with non-lethal effects through common sensing, command-and-control [C2], targeting, and delivery capabilities”, Maj Gen Brooks said during an Association of the United States Army event on 3 December 2024.

The pilot gives the corps an opportunity to have an artillery headquarters-like capability, Brigadier General Alric Francis, commandant of the Field Artillery School, said during the event. “It gives a corps the ability to have a brigade serve as that force field artillery headquarters and allow the subordinate brigades to fight their battalions,” he added.