Transforming the Field Artillery School. (The Update point).

Major General Michael D. Maples 

Chief of Field Artillery

On 9 January 1902, the 29th Battery of Field Artillery arrived at Fort Sill, the first FA unit to be stationed permanently at the installation. The environment at Fort Sill was particularly well suited for FA training, thus beginning Fort Sill's long legacy of service in providing professional competencies to Field Artillerymen.

During the past 100 years, the branch has witnessed significant changes in training requirements and methodologies as weapons systems, organizations and operational environments changed.

Today, the Field Artillery School is about to undergo significant institutional changes, once again. These changes are necessary to adapt to the current requirements of our operating forces, to take advantage of the latest in educational technologies and to position the Field Artillery to meet the challenges of the contemporary operating environment and a transforming Army.

The Field Artillery's Command Sergeant Major Rodney L. Beck and I have conferred with the majority of serving Field Artillery leaders, active and Army National Guard, as well as our senior maneuver commanders and their enlisted advisors. Our purpose was to ensure we understood the personnel, materiel and training issues affecting our operating forces. We have seen firsthand the impact of the current levels of operations tempo (OPTEMPO) and the effects of personnel shortages in the force, and we understand the challenges units face in executing combined arms collective training at home station. We also have witnessed firsthand the excellence in fire support that our corps and division artilleries and our FA brigades are demonstrating worldwide.

Visits to our units have convinced me that while issues related to the latency and replication of fires exist, our Field Artillery formations across the force at every level are responsive to the needs of the combined arms team. The effectiveness of fires is particularly striking where maneuver commanders are committed to achieving combined arms solutions and our fire supporters are innovative and aggressive.

With the introduction of the contemporary operating environment into our dirt Combat Training Centers and the Battle Command Training Program, the importance of developing innovative and aggressive combined arms tactics, techniques and procedures will be magnified.

As we deal with the adjustments dictated by the contemporary operating environment, we also must recognize that the Army will be in a state of constant change for the next 30 years. We will operate with three force structures: Legacy, Interim and Objective, each with differing doctrine, organizations and training requirements.

For the Field Artillery, this will include operating 10 or more weapons systems at multiple echelons in the three force structures in both the Active and Reserve Components. Our soldiers and leaders need focused training for the specific individual and collective competencies required to succeed in their respective forces and organizations and with the particular weapons systems they must employ.

The Field Artillery School must adapt to meet the needs of soldiers, leaders and units of today and, simultaneously, address the educational requirements of FA units in the Interim and Objective forces. We are "moving out" to reduce the time soldiers spend in resident instruction by providing focused assignment-based institutional training combined with distance learning modules. This training is enabled by educational technologies and virtual simulations.

The results will be an increased ability to focus on instruction relevant to soldiers' specific duty assignments, refresh and sustain individual competencies over time and give greater flexibility in the timing of institutional training. This approach will increase the readiness of FA units, active and National Guard, by reducing the time soldiers are away from their units or employers.

In this edition, the article "Fires Training XXI: A Training Strategy for the 21st Century" by Colonel (Retired) John K. Anderson outlines the FA's strategy to maintain readiness as we transform the branch. The strategy is a comprehensive web-based approach to training that provides commanders training support tools now. It also will serve as the basis for us to formally seek resources to develop training aids, devices, simulators and simulations (TADSS) that will enhance our collective training programs. As our concepts for the Interim and Objective Forces mature, we will update the strategy and ensure we can dynamically apply the most appropriate training methodologies to the training requirements.

The FA School is transforming to meet the requirements of full-spectrum operations and Army transformation. Our goal is to synchronize leader and soldier development with the needs of the Army to increase readiness. We are committed to providing the branch the very best institutional training and training support possible to make the Field Artillery an ever more lethal contributor to the combined arms team.