AUSA Paper Focuses on Long-Range Precision Fires

Long-range precision rockets, missiles and munitions provide key capabilities for the U.S. joint force in competition, crisis and conflict, according to a new Association of the U.S. Army Spotlight report.

It was written by retired Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, a former I Corps commanding general who was involved in regionally aligned forces supporting the Indo-Pacific region, and retired Col. Daniel Roper, a career artilleryman who is AUSA's director of national security studies.

Their paper, Fires for Effect: 10 Questions About Army Long-Range Precision Fires in the Joint Fight, explains that long-range precision fires is the Army's No. 1 modernization priority in response to the ongoing demand signal from combatant commanders. They also explain that the Army has a big role in an area where the Air Force and Navy are also important players.

'It is not about surface-based versus air-delivered, or manned versus unmanned, or Army versus Air Force versus Navy; it is about providing complementary options to joint force commanders and creating multiple dilemmas for potential adversaries,' they write.

'U.S. military forces are outgunned and outranged,' the authors write, particularly noting progress made by Russian and Chinese military forces. Army long-range precision fires, enabled by a robust and resilient intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance architecture, provides a critical capability demanded by combatant commanders to enable operations in the air, sea, land, space and cyber domains.

Their full paper is available here.

The Lanza-Roper paper was released just as the Army's Fires Conference 2021 begins. The three-day virtual conference, which begins Aug. 31, includes discussions with senior Army leaders about air and missile defense, field artillery and long-range precision fires. Information on the conference is available here.