Massed Fires, Not Organic Formations: The Case for Returning Field Artillery Battalions to the DivArty
Massed Fires, Not Organic Formations: The Case for Returning Field Artillery Battalions to the DivArty
The U.S. Army needs to realize that in large-scale combat operations against competent adversaries, its divisional field artillery battalions should be controlled by a division artillery (DivArty) headquarters rather than by brigade combat teams (BCTs). To make the case for this change, this essay will trace the history of how U.S. field artillery has evolved since its inception; making the case requires understanding why field artillery battalions became organic to BCTs in the first place.
This essay is not a call to return to the past—rather, it is a call to prepare for the future. If the joint force is to mass fires against a peer adversary, centralized control will be important, just as it was in World War II. Now, with the need to converge fires and effects across multiple domains, it is even more essential. In such an environment, the DivArty will be the “go to” headquarters for Multi-Domain Operations at the division level.