U.S ARMY FIELD ARTILLERY CENTER AND FORT SILL ANNUAL COMMAND HISTORY (RCS CHIS-6 [R4]) 1 JANUARY 2004 THROUGH 31 DECEMBER 2004 BY COMMAND HISTORIAN'S OFFICE JUNE 2005 FORT SILL, OKLAHOMA ii COMMANDER'S INTRODUCTION The Annual Command History for 2004 captures key mission support activities, training and leader development initiatives, and combat development accomplishments for the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill. As soldiers and civilians at Fort Sill worked around the clock to ensure local safety and security, the Field Artillery and Fort Sill continued to transform to meet future requirements. In support of the U.S. Army's Transformation, the Field Artillery led the way in futures development and integration. Advances in the development of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and the Lightweight 155-mm Towed Howitzer promised responsive fire support across the full spectrum of operational environments. In addition to emerging weapons systems, including the Non-Line-of- Sight (NLOS) Cannon and NLOS Launch System, field artillery munitions, such as the Guided MLRS (GMLRS) and the Excalibur Unitary, assured unparalleled mobility and precision lethal fires in the near future. To enhance the Field Artillery's precision capabilities even more, the Field Artillery School conducted the Precision Effects Study and started working to introduce the course-correcting fuse. Meanwhile, the School launched the Counterstrike Task Force initiative to improve the force's ability to respond quickly and effectively to enemy indirect fire. As in past years, Fort Sill's core mission remained training soldiers and leaders for Field Artillery units of the operational forces in 2004. While the Field Artillery Training Center improved realism in Initial Entry Training to prepare soldiers better for the Contemporary Operational Environment, the Field Artillery School provided Field Artillery leaders with world-class training and instruction and introduced non-lethal instruction for officers, warrant officers, and noncommissioned officers. The School's program of instruction furnished assignment-oriented training to prepare leaders and soldiers better for their next or first assignment. To permit Redlegs throughout the world to retrieve information from the Field Artillery School rapidly and efficiently, the Field Artillery School leveraged advanced technology by offering distributive learning and stood up the Fires Knowledge Network. In support of the Army's initiatives on jointness, the Field Artillery School took steps to create the joint fires observer, worked to introduce the Joint Training Center for Fires and Effects Integration, developed the Joint Fires and Effects Trainer System, reintroduced live ordnance close air support training, and conducted its first Joint Fires and Effects Course. Around the world, Redleg soldiers are the pride of the Nation's forces. At home, Field Artillery units continue to train to unprecedented levels of high-quality performance -- preparing for whatever challenges wait them. Now more than ever, the Caissons are indeed rolling along. DAVID P. VALCOURT Major General, USA Commanding iii PREFACE The 2004 Annual Command History for the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill emphasizes the training mission and follows the decision-making process as closely as possible. Through email, messages, staff reports, fact sheets, correspondence, briefings, and other documentation, the Command Historian's Office has recreated as closely as possible how the Center made key decisions concerning joint issues, training, leader development, doctrine, force design, equipment requirements, and mission support. Because the Center and Field Artillery School were involved in many diverse activities during the year, the Command Historian's Office under the direction of the Commanding General selected only those activities deemed to be the most historically significant to include in the History. Preserving historical documents forms a vital part of the historian's work. After they are collected from the various Center and School organizations during the process of researching, they are filed in the historical records and documents collection in the Command Historian's Office. All documents are available for use by Center and School staffs, other U.S. governmental agencies, and private individuals upon request. Because new documents are often found after research and writing are completed, this contemporary history is subject to revision. As new documents are discovered, interpretations and conclusions will change. Comments and suggested changes should be directed to the Command Historian's Office. In the process of researching and writing the History, the historian becomes indebted to many people for their advice and assistance. The Command Historian's Office would like to thank the people who provided their technical expertise. Without their help writing the history would have been far more difficult. BOYD L. DASTRUP, Ph.D. Command Historian U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE i COMMANDER'S INTRODUCTION ii PREFACE iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv CHAPTER ONE MISSION, ORGANIZATION, AND MISSION SUPPORT Mission 8 Organization 8 New Deputy Commanding General for Training 8 Reorganizing the Field Artillery School 9 Strategic Communications School 13 Joint Combined Integration Directorate 14 Counterstrike Task Force and Counterstrike Task Force Initiative 14 Mission Support 15 Installation Management Agency 15 The Mission Budget 18 Program Objective Memorandum 20 Force Protection 21 Power Projection 22 CHAPTER TWO LEADER DEVELOMENT: TRAINING AND EDUCATION Introduction 24 Fires Knowledge Network 24 Distributive Learning 26 Integrating Effects Based Operations into the Program of Instruction 26 Training Aids, Devices, Simulators, and Simulations 27 Joint Fires and Effects Trainer System 27 Call for Fire Trainer 28 Engagement Skills Trainer 29 Fire Support and Combined Arms Tactical Trainer 29 Warrior Ethos and Improved Realism in Initial Entry Training 29 Noncommissioned Officer Education System Redesign 32 Officer Education System 35 Field Artillery Officer Basic Course 35 Field Artillery Captains Career Course 39 Field Artillery Captains Career Course-Distance Learning 40 v New Equipment Training 40 Multiple-Launch Rocket System Training 40 Cannon New Equipment Training 41 Other New Equipment Training 41 Joint Training 42 Joint Training Center for Fires and Effects Integration 42 Joint Fires and Effects Course 43 Live Ordnance Close Air Support Training 44 Non-Lethal Training 45 CHAPTER THREE COMBAT DEVELOPMENTS:FORCE DESIGN DOCTRINE, AND EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS Introduction 47 Joint Issues 47 The Universal Observer/Joint Fires Observer 47 Information Operations and Electronic Warfare 48 Joint Terminal Attack Controller (Ground) Memorandum of Agreement 48 Air Warfare Center Detachment Support to the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Sill 49 Co-locating Battlefield Coordination Detachments with Air Operations and Training/Experimentation Combined Air Operation Centers 49 Force Design and Combat Developments 49 Transformation of the Army 49 Equipment 53 The Initial Armored Vehicle/Stryker Vehicle 53 The Precision Effects Study and the Course Correcting Fuse 58 Capabilities Needs Assessment 59 XM982 Excalibur Extended Range Guided Projectile 60 Precision Guidance Kit, Advanced Cannon Artillery Ammunitions Program, and Insensitive Munitions Program 64 Modular Charge Artillery System 64 Non-Line of Sight Cannon 66 Lightweight Towed 155-mm. Howitzer 70 Multiple-Launch Rocket System 75 Non-Line of Sight Launch System 80 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System 83 vi Army Tactical Missile System and Brilliant Antiarmor Submuntion 88 Firefinder Radars 91 Profiler 92 Improved Position and Azimuth Determining System 93 The Bradley Fire Support Vehicle and Knight 94 Fire Support Sensor System 96 The Dismounted Optic System 96 Joint Effects Targeting System 97 The Lightweight Laser Designator Rangefinder 97 Lightweight Countermortar Radar 99 Command, Control, and Communications Systems 99 Depth and Simultaneous Attack Battle Laboratory 102 Networked Fires II Command and Control Experiment 102 Command and Control of Networked Fires and Integrating Experiment 04 108 Unit of Action Developmental Experiment #3: Urban Operations 114 Omni Fusion Experiments 118 FY05 Omni Fusion Experimentation, Build 0, Fort Leavenworth, Ks 119 Extensible C41 Simulation and FireSim Integration for the Army Constructive Training Federation 122 Combat Training Center Replication 122 Joint Fires and Effects Course 122 Field Artillery School Battle Simulation Center 123 Air Assault Expeditionary Force Spiral B 123 Army Tactical Missile System Penetrator Demonstration Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration 124 Joint Fires Initiative Block 2, Limited Objective Experiment 124 Sea Viking 125 LIST OF ACRONYMS 127 APPENDEX ONE Student Production for FY2004 137 APPENDEX TWO Key USAFAS Personnel 138 APPENDIX THREE Key USAFACFS Personnel 139 APPENDIX FOUR Field Artillery School Commandants 140 APPENDIX FIVE Chiefs of Field Artillery 142 vii APPENDIX SIX Assistant Commandants/Deputy Commanding General for Training 144 APPENDIX SEVEN USAFACFS Mission Organization Chart 146 APPENDIX EIGHT List of Documents 147 INDEX 158 8 CHAPTER ONE MISSION, ORGANIZATION, AND MISSION SUPPORT MISSION Influenced by the new field artillery technology introduced after the Spanish- American War of 1898, the development of indirect