Arty Support

[Imperial Grunt]

This is more like the kind of indirect fire that DT units should have in my opinion..

- posted November 06, 2006 12:21 PM Profile for akd Email akd Edit/Delete Post Reply With Quote VIDEO

quote: Hitting the target in Iraq

New missile provides close support for ground troops 40 miles away

By BOB COX

STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Army and Marine troops battling insurgents in the streets and urban neighborhoods of Iraq now have a potent new weapon at their disposal, thanks to the rocket scientists at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie.

A recently released video shows U.S. troops in an unidentified Iraqi city under fire from snipers in the upper floors of a three-story building. An Abrams tank fires several rounds with its heavy cannon at the building, with little or no effect on enemy fighters.

A few minutes later, an explosion rips through the building and eliminates the insurgents.

The close-quarters urban combat in Iraq is proving to be a perfect testing ground for the Army's M31 GMLRS, or guided multiple launch rocket system, missile. It's a satellite-guided weapon that, launched from more than 40 miles away, can deliver a lethal 196-pound, highly explosive warhead within a 16-foot-wide circle.

A close-up view of the Iraq video shows the missile streaking down onto almost the exact center of the building's roof before exploding on impact or a split-second after.

This "is a revolutionary capability for the Army," said Lt. Col. Mark Pincoski, program manager overseeing acquisition of the missiles at the Army's Redstone Arsenal at Huntsville, Ala.

Since July 2005, when the first missiles equipped with the unitary warheads were delivered to Iraq, the Army says that more than 120 have been fired in combat with a success rate of more than 95 percent.

Pincoski declined to give details about where the missiles were used. But last September, as U.S. troops battled to clear insurgents out of their stronghold in the western Iraqi city of Tal Afar, Army gunners fired eight of the guided missiles over two days, killing 48 enemy fighters, according to an Army News Service report.

In essence, the Army now has the capability to conduct its own precision airstrikes on individual targets with a weapon that it claims poses little danger to nearby troops or civilians.

"The accuracy is what's really impressed people," Pincoski said. "Soldiers in the field are so confident in its accuracy that they're willing to call in strikes that are very close" to them.

Lockheed officials are thrilled with the reviews.

"I can't tell you the praise we've received from the soldiers who've used this system," said Becky Withrow, a business-development manager for the Lockheed division. "They call it the 60-kilometer sniper rifle."

Lockheed engineers, who developed the Army's multiple launch rocket system more than two decades ago, were already working on two new guided missiles that could be used with the existing launchers when U.S. troops invaded Iraq in March 2003.

The requirements called for a precision missile that, like the original MLRS rockets, would release hundreds of individual bomblets for use against enemy troop formations and one with a single, highly explosive warhead that would target structures and equipment.

Lockheed tested missiles in the U.S. when the Army, faced with a war that was increasingly becoming a series of urban street battles against insurgents hiding inside buildings, sent out an urgent call for the unitary warhead missiles to use in combat.

The results, Pincoski said, have far exceeded expectations.

The Army's requirement was that 50 percent of all the missiles would land within a 5-meter-wide circle (about 16 feet) surrounding the exact target coordinates. Pincoski said that in the vast majority of cases, a GMLRS -- as the weapon is known to the military -- has struck targets much closer than expected.

Engineers and technicians at the Lockheed plant in Grand Prairie developed, built and tested the missiles and are working on upgrades.

About 2,700 employees work at the Dallas County facility, and the rockets are assembled at a Lockheed plant in Camden, Ark.

The missiles division, based in Grand Prairie and with another large operation in Orlando, Fla., is part of Lockheed's Electronic Systems division. The entire division had revenues of nearly $10.6 billion in 2005, 28 percent of Lockheed's total. Division revenues are up 10.5 percent for the first nine months of 2006, and its operating profit has increased 18.5 percent.

Before Lockheed had completed testing developmental versions of the unitary GMLRS in 2004, the Army ordered 486 of the missiles, all of which were delivered by the end of 2005.

Earlier this year the Army ordered 972 more, Pincoski said, for delivery by the end of 2007.

He declined to give the cost of the missiles, but based on Lockheed news releases and Army contract announcements, each missile appears to cost less than $1 million each. That's a lot of money but not when it's compared with the cost of having a $50 million F-16 fighter jet flying overhead for hours on call for an airstrike.

Operating close to Army and Marine units, artillery units equipped with M-270 MLRS launchers, tracked vehicles carrying two six-tube rocket launchers, can fire the guided missiles at targets up to 70 kilometers away (about 43 miles) within minutes of receiving data from troops on the scene. From firing to impact, at maximum range, is about two minutes.

Aimed at a specific set of Global Positioning System coordinates by the launch computer, the missile stays in contact with orbiting GPS satellites and adjusts its course as needed.

Since the advent of cannons, ground troops have relied on artillery for heavy firepower.

But even modern artillery fired by the best-trained crews has accuracy limitations; getting within 50 meters of the target by the second or third round is considered good shooting.

"Artillery, in general, has been an area weapon," said Ivan Oelrich, military weapons analyst with the Federation of American Scientists.

Laser- and GPS-guided bombs let the Air Force strike targets with considerable precision but with a higher chance of damage or casualties in a wider area.

Then there's the issue of interservice rivalries.

"The Army doesn't want to have to wait on the Air Force" to fly in and assist ground troops under fire, Oelrich said.

The 196-pound warhead "seems to be a pretty good size for the fight that's going in Iraq," Pincoski said. Soldiers on the scene have told him that the GMLRS missiles have hit their intended target while leaving buildings across a narrow alleyway unscathed, he said.

"We've had several instances where insurgents occupied buildings that were near buildings they knew we wouldn't want to damage" with artillery or airstrikes, Pincoski said. But thanks to Lockheed's rocketry expertise "we're able to hit those buildings" without damaging others.

link to article

The links did not copy, here is the video...

Lockeed Martin

[Chilibird]

If you use ctl-m to target using artillery, you can pretty much pinpoint a spot. The only catch is that you don't get a very clear idea of exactly where the shot will land. Might be nicer to do it from the TACMAP, but that's just me.

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

I think it would be intersting to have a single precission missile strike as an alternative ALT F (haha) for the Mercury.

I have often encountered situations where your team is too close to the enemy to use the classic alt F.

To not make it an Uber-Weapon it would be either the missile strike or conventional arty in a given time poeriod. Also the missile should be vulnerable to the Hermes.

[Caseck]

Sounds like a good job for a new support vehicle.

[combatplus2]

I'm all for a precision strike option, as long as it doesn't become an unbalanced weapon (naturally). One plausible "balancing factor" could be that your precision strike is *usually* very accurate -- to 10 meters or so about 90% of the time -- but 10% of the time $%^& happens (malfunction, etc) in which case the shell lands who-knows-where, maybe even right on a friendly position.

A precision strike feature should be coupled with new (upcoming?) artillery spotting / ATGM targeting units! It would give that Afghanistan-style joint operations feel, as well as new incentives for teamwork.