Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 79
ARTILLERY
synchronization matrix, an information collection
plan, and target refinements. The 101st DIVARTY
staff conducted fires planning that developed a synchronized plan that achieved assigned FSTs.
During the plans synchronization meeting, operations planners, staff-section representatives, and participating brigade fire support officers refined FSTs into field
artillery tasks, developed courses of action for artillery
and radar positioning, determined effects and requirements, synchronized sustainment, and assigned planning
responsibilities to direct-support artillery battalions.
In addition to developing field artillery tasks and other
supporting planning requirements, another output of the
meeting was recommendations for target refinement,
the high-payoff target list, and airspace control measures
submitted into the division targeting process.
Once the DIVARTY began operations, planners in
the synchronization meeting identified enemy artillery
positions and planned coordinated attacks against those
locations. The plans section developed a system to perform course-of-action development, war-gaming, and
target refinement for the next five days of the air-tasking
order cycle, with inputs from the entire DIVARTY staff.
The plans staff transitioned efforts to current operations using a detailed transition brief twenty-four to
thirty-six hours before planned execution. Proactive
coordination between plans and current operations
staffs aided the 101st DIVARTY’s ability to execute a
rapid decision-making and synchronization process,
which enabled the DIVARTY commander and staff to
adjust plans as operational changes developed.
The 101st DIVARTY did not experience the majority of commonly noted fires-related issues during
two WFXs. Instead, the organization had an invaluable
opportunity to relearn fires skills needed to support the
division at the operational level of war. The DIVARTY
also developed new procedures for dealing with systemic
organizational and operational challenges. The 101st
DIVARTY’s lessons learned regarding battlefield geometry, the division counterfire fight, UAS integration, and
fires planning were critical to preparing the organization
for success in future decisive action conflicts.
Biographies
Maj. Travis Robison, U.S. Army, is the deputy commander of the 101st Division Artillery (Air Assault). He
earned a BA in political science from the University of Colorado, an MPA from the University of Montana, and
an MMOAS from the U.S. Air Force Air Command & Staff College. He was recently selected as an Advanced
Strategic Planning & Policy Program fellow. His military experience includes assignments in Germany, Kosovo,
South Korea, the United States, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Capt. Alex Moen is the plans officer for the 101st Division Artillery (Air Assault). He has a BA in political science
from Texas A&M University and is completing an MBA from Arizona State University. His military experience
includes assignments in the United States, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Notes
1. United States Army Combined Arms Center (CAC), Mission
Command Training Program (MCTP) Overview Brief, Mission Command Training Program website (10 March 2016), accessed 28
April 2016, https://combinedarmscenter.army.mil/orgs/cact/MCTP/
Front_Page/MCTP_CMD_Brief.pdf (login required).
2. Army Regulation 350-50, Combat Training Center Program
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 3 April 2013),
2, accessed 28 April 2016, http://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/pdf/
r350_50.pdf.
3. CAC, MCTP Overview Brief, 18.
MILITARY REVIEW July-August 2016
4. John McHugh, Army directive 2012-08 (Army Total Force
Policy), 4 September 2012, accessed 16 May 2016, http://www.
apd.army.mil/pdffiles/ad2012_08.pdf.
5. CAC, MCTP Overview Brief, 17.
6. Edward T. Bohnemann, MCTP Trends in a Decisive Action
Warfighter Exercise, Mission Command Training Program
website (2014), 29, accessed 28 April 2016, https://combinedarmscenter.army.mil/orgs/cact/MCTP/Documents/MCTP%20
Trends%20in%20a%20Decisive%20Action%20WFX.pdf (login
required).
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