European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 17, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday. October 17. 1985 the stars and stripes Page 9 i tech beast offers accuracy Speed b Dontate staff Milit ride the beast or in will Damn Well Rule  is the  col. Or Coghlon 3. A in mis jr., artillery  for i Herd inf div. I Trull is the Vonil Irful but difficult be Isi called technology. On this Day. Artillery learns from nine battalions were rid i the beast in Fields near kit Ingon. Big Mips were firing repeatedly Binning up enemy positions pm the left and on the right. Only there was in smoke no explosions Cir even sound except Lor the funny Lille noises emanating from computers and other very sophisticated devices. The big j uns Anil explosions were simulated the Forward observers and technicians no craving devices of the computer based i a lire system were real. Lac lire says . Gives us the most accurate a Lillyn and army has Ever . The russians Don t have the equivalent. They have nothing like in. This makes hitting the target a piece us cake if. If the Voung men gathered in the Nail ers and to coils. Silting Belore the a mauler screens digital plotter maps and other electronic devices kens exactly what they re doing. Making War with Evn Lic gadgets  the son of the late army chief of staff can get dangerously stick if we Don t entirely master in. It s easy to lose control of the technology that is always Irving to Gallop away from  hut staying in control requires the kind of repetition the kind of intensive practice of our most perishable technical skills that we just Don t gel in live firing at Orafa Woehr. We fire at Graf perhaps three times a year not nearly enough under conditions that emphasis safety Over realism. It is a Good place to practice gunnery techniques firing one Mission at a Lime but by now we have the grids the targets and Impact areas so Meinoris de. It s not much of a  the Best training device  stresses Abrams. Is the  thus in the playing Fields of Kil Ingen. Abrams has devised an artillery dry lire game he runs several times a month lie Calls in  in artillery Bingo. Teams compete against each other actually computing the same data and eroding in on the same targets with tac lire Belore theoretically blowing them away. It s competitive we keep score there Are winners. We see who shoots the Best. If Vou lose come Back next week. I he Beauty of in is. We can practice the Lac i ire system Over and Over.  Lhing is exercised but pulling the lanyard and hearing the Boom. Gallery could be in two or three fights at once. Right now. For example we be got a  out there where a Convoy is com ing Down the Road and we re going to dry tire rounds thai Hurst in the air and drop scat Lerable mines along the Road slowing Down the Convoy Ami giving attack helicopters time to get in there and engage in that s a Quick was to put out a mine  Abrams is asked what happens if the russians and americans Ever get Mlo a Knock Down drag out Duel of big guns i Al me see if i can describe the differences. I he sol ids have the and Village in numbers and Rale of lire. When the gel their guns All lined up. Icv can put Oul a much larger volume of lire. I very nov shoots at one Point and then everybody shoots at another trying to wipe Oul whole Grid squares in one big Boom. Our advantages with tac i inc Are accuracy and we can handle a variety of missions at one time. I Don t think they can. And we be got things like 1 in cinder radar a counter fire radar for local ii the other Guys artillery which is easily the finest  in the world today tremendously accurate we be Ako got a big  in munitions and our main is Howlier is in Ahlva Idit ale photo Tor s&5 do James i c of. Creighton j. Abramsjr. Best training device around is the imagination we can try out anything any Battle scenario and screw in up completely but we re still learning from in. It s a Little like thai movie where George Washington is a Soldier and he goes to the governor of Virginia and ad1, uses  he wants to be promoted to lieutenant colonel. And the governor shakes his head and replies. Why. You be loss every Bailie you be been in and George Washington says. Hul i be i inc a. I be . " Abrams adds Hal out Here we re learning accuracy Speed and synchrony a lion the Way we never would live firing at Graf. We can also practice surge conditions with Many different kinds of mis Sions coming in at  As a Young Battery commander in Viet Nam. Abrams found Oul what live firing in combat was like. But Over there we were shooting basically in support of infantry and normally Only one fight at a Lime Bui if War Hrcak out in tur pc. We could Al most be overwhelmed with demands. One Hal gun is fantastic " Abrams fairly flowed when he talked about the multiple i Amin cell Rockel sys tem. It outrages the russians can fire \2 rockets in a minute Al 12 Dale rent targets runs around on a Bradley Chassis so thai after in fires it can gel the hell Mil and shoot from someplace else. In can gel closer to he front lines than anything the russians have. In computes us own data. All you be got to do i v Tell Hal Little thing. Mere s the Grid i want you to blow away so who wins if the soviets with their Many guns Ever  Loose tin the Ameri cans Wilh their More accurate guns i think we would win that counter fire Battle in the first is   says if the russians Start Oul guns Hla my. They Are going to find themselves very quickly a Lille thin in the  Tor Ull his respect of the Greal beast technology however Abrams notes Hal Here is still no substitute for thai Lille infantryman in conventional War. I ight infantry dismounted troops in the Nghil circumstances can do a hell of a Job in the Wix mls and in the cities Over Here. If the balloon goes up. We re going to see a  of tool soldiers coining at  i be seen a Rifle bal Tahon. Using lots of smoke go right through a  battalion unscathed. And in s the ail Illery that helps pro decl those Lille  tac fire is Upu Sebeal of modern artillery when i came in the army recalls col. Creighton j. Abramsjr. People said Hal army equipment was made by fun discs to be used by idiots. Now they say Lac i ire is made by geniuses to be used by geniuses the computer based fire support system that replaces the old voice manual radio so slim for putting artillery steel on the target May not be manned entirely by Genu i x bul it would be hard to find a dunce working in the More sensitive positions of today s Field artillery Here is the jargon 1st . Craig . A 3rd inf div fire direction officer i houses to describes he humming  Iri Iler room called the battalion tac i ire shelter. The i repulse cat of modern artillery firing. I. Very thing Hows from Here. Those two men usually there Are three in a in erf Ico Wilh the computer. One of them is the hit Intro console operator. The console is basically two is and pc aboard the actual computer is Back there on Scitem  i devices one is the input output unit. The other is the Central processing unit. There arc three Mem orcs right behind the i do. Get nut shooting our own   a s that if the tac i ire shelter gets knocked Oul to Lause wit was always talking about the friction of War. Just visualize the simplest thing belting front Point a to Point in which is normally Ury easy to do. Hul in conical when you Are very scared the simplest act suddenly becomes very very difficult. So i can l Tell you How operating Lac i ire and Ull this other great Complex technology we be got will hold up under the friction of mar. The Hest solution 1 know is to practice practice practice so hat even when you re scared Oul of your mind you can still do it. Col. Creighton j. Abramsjr. B the enemy there Are backup methods us calling fire. A lyrical tac 1 ire minion goes like this a the Forward observer also called i is is Lor fire support Tea usually located five or it kilo Melcs Oul from of the tac shelter physically locates the target with binoculars Ihen punches the Grid coordinates target Dis Crillion and method of fire etc., into his digital message device a Box about the Sie of a Small portable typewriter. I Connerty he would have called this in on radio and he still can if something goes wrong. I the information is received in the tac i ire shelter straight into the computer is processed by the computer. And a Dot on the digital plotter map is automatically placed where the target is located. C the computer programmed Wilh the commander s criteria picks the Battery  should lire sends a message  to the Forward observer advising who is going in shool Anil a Lul kind of rounds Are going i be Luil. Used on target Type the computer is programmed to determine what is the Best ammunition to defeat the target. All this appears on the screen and the my can review it and veto it if he s nut satisfied. I i rom the battalion tac shelter the artillery Eon sole operator sends the information to the Battery fire direction Center located Back closer to the guns. Another computer processes the information Ami sends it directly to digital boxes on the guns and Wilh the Section chief. I the guns fire. A Normal tire Mission takes less than two minutes from the Lime the Forward observer spots the target to the time the first round arrives on or near the target. Don Tate