Bob Scales has run a lot of war games. I covered him doing them back in the late 1990s. Plus he’s held a lot of the most important jobs in the Army, including at the Army’s home of artillery, Fort Sill. He was around when the battle was on to ban landmines, which bear many similarities… Keep reading →

“Outranged and outgunned” by Russian and Chinese missiles, the US Army wants a new long-range artillery rocket of its own. The nascent Long-Range Precision Fires program could do much more than replace the 25-year-old ATACMS missile, however. LRPF could become a linchpin of what the Army is calling Multi-Domain Battle, extending ground-based artillery’s reach not… Keep reading →

AUSA: There are almost a quarter-million Humvees (and counting) around the world, from the US to Ukraine to the Philippines, and AM General built them all. The Indiana-based company is constantly finding new ways to upgrade the 1980s-vintage design, but this is the most radical I’ve seen: a cargo Humvee whose flatbed holds a howitzer, the kind of weapon… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: One of the Army’s most successful weapons programs is now under fire over safety shortfalls. The Automatic Fire Extinguisher System (AFES) in the upgraded M109A7 Paladin artillery vehicle “did not protect the entire howitzer crew compartment during fire survivability testing,” the Department of Defense Inspector General reports today. DoD IG says this safety system… Keep reading →

From lasers to jammers to snipers, the US military has tried lots of technologies and tactics to get rid of enemy drones. But before you can shoot it, you have to see it — preferably far away, before its cameras spot your troops and, say, dive-bomb them or relay their position to a battery of… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: If ground forces are obsolete, why are the Chinese bothering to build all those artificial islands in the South China Sea? The answer to that is key to the US Army’s emerging vision of its future role, a complex combination of old-fashioned close combat, resilient wireless networks, and advanced long-range weapons that extend the Army’s reach… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: It’s a bit hard to believe, but the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces subcommittee wants the Pentagon to consider the possibility of restarting the F-22 production line. “In light of growing threats to U.S. air superiority as a result of adversaries closing the technology gap and increasing demand from allies and partners… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: “We are outgunned — outmanned — outnumbered — outplanned,” George Washington raps in Act I of the hit musical Hamilton. Few American commanders since the Revolution have had to worry about being inferior to the enemy in both numbers and technology. But between rising threats, declining US manpower, and steep cuts to Army modernization,… Keep reading →

ARLINGTON: New threats from Russia and China mean the Army must take on new missions — but it’s got almost no new money so the Army is looking at ways to modify existing systems to do some radically new things. So imagine howitzers firing precision-guided cannon shells to shoot cruise missiles out of the sky or to sink… Keep reading →

SURFACE NAVY ASSOCIATION: Paul Daniels of Raytheon is a bit miffed. Yesterday, prominent defense commentator Loren Thompson wrote an article in Forbes extolling the technology Daniels works on, precision-guided cannon shells — particularly the products of BAE Systems. But Daniels doesn’t work for BAE. He works on Raytheon’s Excalibur smart round, fired 800 times in anger in… Keep reading →