During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, an early version of the Patriot missile intercepted a number of Iraqi Scud missiles.That’s when not much else was in the skies to worry about and the nascent technology existing at the time did a pretty impressive job in protecting ground forces, said Maj. Gen. John G. Rossi, speaking at an Association of the United States Army Hot Topic panel titled "Transform the AMD Force."Today, technology has advanced to the point where a missile in outer space can be hit with another missile and taken out, he said, the point being that industry has been and will continue to be really good at coming up with new materiel solutions to air and missile defense, or AMD.Areas ripe for improvement by soldiers at the U.S Army Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Okla. – which Rossi commands – have less to do with materiel solutions and more to do with better training and fires integration than with the maneuver force, he said, adding that changes are being made in those areas to make that a reality.Rolling with maneuverThe maneuver force – consisting of Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Strykers and so on – does not want "an air defense artillery battalion dragging behind, slowing it down with thin-skinned vehicles trailing a huge logistics tail," Rossi said.The focus of the maneuver force, he said, is forced entry with rapid transitioning to the offense.He added, "We’re working through how to enable that without slowing them down."Currently, when a commander requests air defense artillery, or ADA, assets, "we say, here, have a Patriot [missile] battalion." That’s generally the same answer that’s always given, he said.But that solution is limited. "I can’t take [a Patriot battalion] apart and break it in pieces because I need an ICC wherever that battalion goes or it’s not as capable," Rossi said.ICC, or information coordination central, is some of the equipment a Patriot battalion needs to function. It’s towed and carried by truck and adds to the logistics train.The fires center is looking at a more streamlined "1:1:1" approach to providing future ADA support to maneuver forces, he said.Currently, there might be "tens of shooters and tens of sensors. Ultimately, you get it down to one sensor, one shooter, one C4I system," he said, describing what 1:1:1 means. C4I is command, control, communications, computers and intelligence.Rossi referred to the 1:1:1 approach as "match maneuver support."It is "not adding more missile and equipment to the battlefield; just doing things a little differently."Match maneuver involves "componentization" or breaking ADA capabilities into smaller and more maneuverable assets that can be matched to whatever size maneuver force is required.Talking to maneuverBetter communications between fires and maneuvers is key in supporting the new AMD approach, Rossi said. "We need to better understand how you’re operating" so AMD solutions are not implemented in a vacuum.The Maneuver Center of Excellence, or CoE, at Fort Benning, Ga., has armor and infantry training together, so the concurrent approach is working there, but fires is not involved."We don’t do anything together," he said, "but we’re fixing that. We have a lot more in common [with maneuver] than you think."Rossi’s son, incidentally, is now attending the captain’s course at the Maneuver CoE, so he has insight on what’s going on there.Besides just the CoEs, AMD needs to communicate better with the operating forces down to the brigade combat team, or BCT, level, he said. BCTs are "not talking to us. We need to. There are threats out there not just to combatant commanders; it’s also BCTs saying we need you back in the game."For example, he said, they’re asking AMD units and fires "how are we going to deal with this counter-unmanned aerial systems threat that’s causing us problems?"In other words, AMD is important to them.The emphasis of AMD is still focused on the "M," or missile part, he said, the mentality being shooting back or trying to shoot the missile down, or locate and capture it.At the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, that led to fratricide and limited effectiveness.The "A," or air aspect, is a lot harder to get a handle on, with congested air space filled with threats that are hard to identify, and integrating air components with fire components.If AMD is slow and imprecise to respond to the panoply of threats, the BCTs will lose confidence in fires capabilities. When that happens, he said, "they just don’t call for you or they get someone else to do it."In the ADA world, on the other hand, "if there’s a lack of confidence, you just get restricted at what you can shoot at – and they hold engagement authority at three-star level," Rossi said."We can’t fight that way," he said. ADA capabilities need "to be brought back down to battery and battalion level where it should be."Back to schoolLeader development needs to be the number-one priority at fires and throughout the AMD community, Rossi said, implying that it currently is taking a backseat to heavy mission demands.Like other Army specialties, ‘fires’ is basically "a people business," he said. Training and educating the force needs to occur more than it has been during the last 14 years of high wartime operations tempo.Also, modernizing the approach to learning needs to occur, he said.For example, training on equipment is still being done the same way it was in the early 1980s. Also, the Fires CoE needs to better leverage technology like gaming, which would bring down costs and add to the rest of the learning experience.Finally, Rossi said: With the expected proliferation of unmanned aircraft systems and missile developments, soldiers face potentially more threats from the skies.Adding, "We can succeed [at doing a better job of air and missile defense] without getting a whole lot of new stuff."(Editor’s note: This story is based on an article by David Vergun, Army News Service)