Time to Break the Current Thinking Pattern.

Gunneresses and Gunners (Ladies and Gentlemen), Isn't there always something discomforting about Hi-Tech intruding into our daily professional routine? Particularly when it affects things that we perceive as having a certain smartness or intellectual value; things we're used to doing ourselves but must surrender to someone else -- or worse, to something else. Remember the first personal computers -- you know, MS-Dos commands like "copy a:file.* b:file.*" and so forth? We felt in full command of our computer. Nowadays, what do we do? We merely click on an icon and drag it onto another icon. We no longer see `things' happening, we just have to trust the computer -- or go insane. But frankly, would you care to go backwards now? The same applies to your car. You no longer open the bonnet to tweak the carburettors and adjust the ignition points, simply because there are none. Moreover, the guarantee now lasts up to three years and you have to trust the mysterious black boxes in what has become a plumber's nightmare -- the engine bay!

The same is happening to artillery, and the toughest point is that we shall have to change our thinking pattern. Very soon, the battery commander will have to understand that he'll have better to do than spend hours plotting an attack (albeit with a touch of pride) after taking meteorological conditions, propellant quality, barrel wear, medium muzzle speed velocities, planning etc and subsequently work out ballistic calculations for each piece to see what is achievable. With new-age howitzer systems like the Caesar and the PzH 2000 -- these have their own reference units, computers and muzzle radars -- the commander's train of thought no longer needs to be obnubilated by having to predict the performance or final efficiency of each unit and can therefore concentrate on the stuff that really matters -- the tactical situation and the most efficient way of manoeuvring each gun of the battery to fulfil a mission. In other words, responsibilities must now be delegated to those with the ability to deal with the more trivial problems that pertain to their own gun, since the individual pieces have been given the computing capability to handle all necessary corrections and to fettle their own trajectories. Thus, with freshly freed intellectual abilities, a commander can take a more global view of the board and worry about manoeuvring his castles and bishops onto the best squares, which in turn will translate into higher blitz speeds.

No doubt the `old school' will find difficult to accept that what used to be an elite's prerogative can now be performed downstream, by machines. But it is a fact: every one will eventually be going up one step. That, or the chap on the other side will be quicker.

You choose.