Precision Artillery Fires: Leveraging Advances in Field Artillery Munitions to Improve Future Breakthrough and Exploitation Operations

This paper explores the impact precision-guided artillery munitions will have on future breakthrough and exploitation operations and how those munitions might enhance or change the way artillery is employed in support of these operations. The fielding of a cost effective precision-guided capability such as the Precision Guidance Kit (PGK), which turns conventional artillery munitions into precision-guided munitions, has the potential to revolutionize the way commanders execute breakthrough and exploitation operations. This paper concludes that precision-guided artillery munitions will allow a breakthrough force to achieve faster and more predictable effects, reduce the logistical burden on artillery forces, and allow artillery forces to task organize into smaller elements that provide greater flexibility and mobility for the supported commander.