Army experiments with integrating attack drones into artillery formations

The Army has a gap to close between long-range precision weapons and indirect fires at closer ranges, so they’re looking to attack drones to fill in the mid-range capabilities, the service’s vice chief of staff said Wednesday. “We're imagining a future where instead of it just being all tube,” there will be a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System battalion, an M777 howitzer battalion, “and then in that third battalion, it'll be a combination of mortars, 105 mm, launched defects, loitering munitions, first-person drones, that makes up the delta for the longer range and the cannon artillery.” “We can't afford to wait that amount of time, and the only way you're going to do it is through automation and robotics, because a robot doesn't care whether it's working 24 hours a day or 12 hours a day, and the human component of this is what always takes the longest amount of time,” he said.

Author: Meghann Myers

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