U.S ARMY FIRES CENTER OF EXCELLENCE AND FORT SILL ANNUAL COMMAND HISTORY (RCS CHIS-6 [R4]) 1 JANUARY 2008 THROUGH 31 DECEMBER 2008 BY COMMAND HISTORIAN’S OFFICE FORT SILL, OKLAHOMA ii COMMANDER’S INTRODUCTION The Annual Command History for 2008 captures key mission support activities, training and leader development initiatives, and combat development accomplishments for the U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill. While Soldiers and civilians at Fort Sill worked 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. In addition to emerging weapons systems, including the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), the Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon, the M777 155-mm. Towed Howitzer, and the NLOS Launch System, field artillery munitions, such as the Guided MLRS (GMLRS) and the Excalibur Unitary, assured unparalleled precision lethal fires in the near future. To enhance the Field Artillery’s precision capabilities even more, the Field Artillery School worked to introduce the Precision Guidance Kit. Fort Sill’s core mission remained training Soldiers and leaders for Field Artillery units of the operational forces. While the 434th Field Artillery Brigade enhanced 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. The School furnished assignment-oriented training to prepare leaders and Soldiers better for their next or first assignment. Recognizing the impact of non-standard missions in the Contemporary Operational Environment on Redlegs, the Field Artillery School energetically developed reset training programs for individuals and units to retrain Redlegs in core Field Artillery competencies and made nonlethal fires a Field Artillery core competency. As part of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission to co-locate Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery training at one location, the Field Artillery Center and the Air Defense Artillery Center, the latter at Fort Bliss, Texas, worked to create the Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill. In support of the Army’s initiatives on jointness, Fort Sill’s Joint and Combined Integration Directorate served as the Army’s hub for joint command and control developments and issues and conducted the Joint Operational Fires and Effects Course and the Joint Fires Observer Course, while the Field Artillery School taught the Tactical Information Operations Warfare Course and the Army Operational Electronic Warfare Course to develop Soldiers and leaders with the abilities of providing nonlethal effects. 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. PETER M. VANGJEL Major General, USA Commanding General iii PREFACE The 2008 Annual Command History for the U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill follows the decision-making process as closely as possible. Through interviews, email, messages, staff reports, fact sheets, correspondence, briefings, and other documentation, the Command Historian’s Office has recreated as closely as possible how the Fires Center of Excellence made key decisions concerning joint issues, training, leader development, doctrine, force design, equipment requirements, and mission support. Because the Fires Center of Excellence was 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 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 Fires Center of Excellence 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 Organization 1 New Assistant Commandant for the U.S. Army Field Artillery School 1 Base Realignment and Closure 2005 and the Fires Center of Excellence 2 Mission Support 15 Residential Communities Initiative 15 Fort Sill and South West Oklahoma Community Partnership Council 16 Lawton-Fort Sill Co-Op Program 17 Mission Budget 18 Army Radar Approach Control 19 Power Projection 20 CHAPTER TWO: LEADER DEVELOPMENT: TRAINING AND EDUCATION Introduction 21 Commanding General’s Training Guidance for Fiscal Year 2008 21 Return of the King 21 Joint Fires OIF/OEF Initial Impressions Report 22 Writing Doctrine 23 The Joint Fires University Concept 24 Reset, Mobile Training Teams, and Collective Training Evaluation Teams and Atrophy of Skills 27 Distance Learning 32 Army National Guard Regional Training Institutes 32 Fire Support Coordinator Course 33 Training Aids, Devices, Simulators, and Simulations 35 Joint Fires Effects Trainer System 35 Call-for-Fire Trainer 36 434th Field Artillery Brigade 36 Warrior Training 36 Warrior Transition Course 37 Gender-integrated Training 38 v Reserve Component Mobilization to Support 434th Field Artillery Brigade 39 Noncommissioned Officer Education System Course Expansion 40 Integrating Warrant Officers into the Basic Officer Leaders Course II 41 Officer Education System 42 Basic Officer Leaders Course II 42 Basic Officer Leaders Course III 43 Field Artillery Captain’s Career Course and Expansion 43 Field Artillery Captain’s Career Course- Distance Learning 45 Pre-command Course and Expansion 46 Adding Nonlethal Fires as Core Competency 46 Field Artillery Captain Attrition 47 New Field Artillery Museum 49 Joint and Combined Integration Directorate 49 Fort Sill’s Joint Fires Center of Excellence Training Initiatives 50 Army’s Joint Close Air Support Center of Excellence Concept 51 Joint Terminal Attack Controller Course 52 Joint Fires Observer Course 53 Joint Operational Fires and Effects Course 53 The 138th Combat Training Squadron 53 Nonlethal Training 54 Army Operational Electronic Warfare Course 54 Tactical Information Operations Course 55 CHAPTER THREE: COMBAT DEVELOPMENTS: FORCE DESIGN, DOCTRINE, AND REQUIREMENTS Introduction 57 Field Artillery Campaign Plan for 2007-2008 57 2008 Fires Symposium 59 Force Design and Combat Developments 59 Transformation of the Army 59 Modularization 59 Division and Corps 60 Fires Brigade 62 Theater Army 64 Brigade Combat Team Review 64 Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Study 65 vi Future Combat System 66 Equipment 67 Excalibur Extended Range Guided Projectile 67 Precision Guidance Kit 73 Future Cannon Munitions Suite 75 Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon 75 Lightweight Towed 155-mm. Howitzer 81 Current Cannon Programs 88 M119 Towed 105-mm. Howitzer 88 Paladin Integrated Management Program 91 Multiple-Launch Rocket System 92 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System 101 Army Tactical Missile System 109 Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System 114 Firefinder Radars 121 Artillery Meteorology 122 Improved Position and Azimuth Determining System 124 Bradley Fire Support Vehicle and Knight 125 Fire Support Sensor System 129 Joint Effects Targeting System 129 Lightweight Laser Designator Rangefinder 130 Lightweight Countermortar Radar 131 Paladin Operations Center Vehicle 132 Command, Control, and Communications Systems 132 Counter-Rocket, Artillery, and Mortars 136 Fires Battle Laboratory 138 Glossary 146 Appendix One Student Production for Fiscal Year 2008 158 Appendix Two Key USAFAS Personnel 159 Appendix Three Key USAFCOEFS Personnel 160 Appendix Four Field Artillery School Commandants 161 Appendix Five Chiefs of Field Artillery 163 Appendix Six Assistant Commandants 165 Appendix Seven USAFCOEFS Mission Organization Chart 167 Appendix Eight USAFAS and Fort Sill Mission Organization Chart, 2008 168 Appendix Nine Approved Fires Center of Excellence Model, January 2007 169 Appendix Ten List of Documents 170 Index of Names 182 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 fire, and inadequately trained Field Artillerymen, the War Department opened the School of Fire for Field Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in September 1911. While War Department, General Orders No. 72 of 3 June 1911 tasked the school to furnish