Army fires must develop and converge effects to support large-scale combat operations on a battlefield where the enemy can see everything, a senior leader said.

Maj. Gen. Winston Brooks, commanding general of the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, said that while air defense and field artillery are and should remain separate and distinct branches, efficiencies can be gained with sensors, shooters and battle command systems.

“We must continue to modernize the fires warfighting function by integrating all forms of fires from air defense, field artillery, aviation and our non-lethal fires within the air defense and field artillery branches,” Brooks said Dec. 3 at a Hot Topic on the future of fires hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army. 

“We must seek opportunities to converge on commonality and make fires more efficient and effective to support our maneuver forces, we must fight better with fires and make every projectile, rocket and missile count,” he said.

There are three elements of integrating fires, Brooks said. They are “sensor networks, data convergence of command and control or fire control systems and common launcher platforms,” he said, adding that the fires enterprise is looking into development of “a common tactical fires radar that can execute counter-fire, target acquisition and air surveillance for our light divisions.”

These capabilities, he said, will enable joint forcible entry operations and provide early warning in the future. Brooks cautioned that these capabilities do not automatically create transparency on the battlefield. “We must create transparency through leveraging these assets, our processes and the accurate use of the sensors that we have available,” he said.

Progress has been made in modernizing Army fires, Brooks said, noting that the service has “made great strides in activating field artillery headquarters at the theater and corps levels.”

Since 2020, the fires enterprise has modernized for large-scale combat operations, which requires command and control at echelon, massing capabilities and the ability to integrate air defense capabilities, he said.

Highlighting some examples, Brooks noted that the service stood up the 56th Artillery Command in Europe, as well as a theater fires element in the Pacific. An operational fires command pilot program is underway with V Corps that will comprise soldiers from the Army National Guard.

“The composite fires formations at echelon will employ advanced technologies to deliver lethal fires integrated with non-lethal effects through common sensing, command and control targeting and delivery capabilities,” Brooks said. “This increases our ability to provide mass and lethality to support large-scale combat operations in both [the Regular Army and Army National Guard].”

Brooks also noted that the lack of short-range air defense, which left maneuver formations and critical nodes unprotected against enemy planes, helicopters, unmanned systems and rocket artillery and mortar systems, is being addressed with the fielding of divisional air defense battalions, indirect fire protection capability battalions, counter-small unmanned aircraft systems batteries and division counter-small unmanned aircraft system sets “to defend our high priority organizations in large-scale combat operations.”

“These organizational changes are all being done simultaneously as the Army undergoes continuous transformation,” Brooks said.