Newsletter from America: Dragon Fire II - the new face of mobile artillery? | ADM Mar 08

1 March 2008

By Lincoln Parker

In the past, when you thought of mortars old images of World War 2 GI's loading rounds into small tubes came to mind. Not anymore.

Last month I visited US Marine Corps Base, Quantico in northern Virginia, just outside Washington DC.

I went to meet with LTCOL Rick Lindsey (ret) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory to hear about a mortar based system that has been designed to provide mobile fire support for expeditionary forces.

But the Dragon Fire II is certainly not the old mortar system you're used to.

Dragon Fire II is a lightweight automated mortar-firing system designed for digital fire control, networked communications capabilities, and fire on the move - with precision.

Dragon Fire II was specifically designed to be mobile, light and lethal.

It can be transported within an amphibious ship, or a variety of heavy lift aircraft like the Hercules or C-17.

It fits within the MV-22 Osprey, CH-53, and can be towed by any available military vehicle.

Whether it is being employed as a towed weapon or as a self-propelled, LAV-based weapon, Dragon Fire II will be capable of full-time navigation, communication, and networking within the fires coordination system.

Any Dragon Fire II is capable of acting as a master system to plan fires, pass safety information with locations and fires coordination measures, and controlling subordinate Dragon Fire II weapons to implement precise, rapid and efficient fire support.

R&D
Since 1997 the US Marine Corps Warfighting laboratory has been experimenting with the Dragon Fire - through multiple iterations.

It was developed to explore applying automation to an artillery system and has successfully demonstrated that automation could be reliable as well as significantly improve precision and responsiveness.

The Dragon Fire was also designed for integration onto a Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) chassis to form a modular artillery system, allowing commanders to tailor artillery mobility to immediate tactical requirements.

Dragon Fire II uses electric actuators for extremely fast response and increased accuracy in weapon pointing.

In the event an automatic system fails it has manual backups for continuous mission support.

The fire control computer system has been entirely redesigned to use the US Army M95 Mortar Fire Control System (MFCS) as its basis, allowing digital communication with the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) as an artillery system.

Let's look at some stats
With a range of over 8km (or 13km with rocket-assisted projectiles) it weighs in at just 1.705 tonnes and has a length of less than 2.5 metres.

Its range of traverse is 360 degrees, the time to process target, aim, and load is 14 seconds, with an average precision at 8,000m (CEP) of 25 metres!

It can fire 10 rounds per minute for 2 minutes, or four rounds per minute sustained fire.

But most impressive, and perhaps relevant to Australia, is the vastly reduced crewing capacity required to operate the system, and lastly its cost.

Most estimates show it costing about 50 per cent of a standard artillery system being used by the Marine Corps today.

Other key features include:

o Entirely self-contained: on-board fire control computer, communication, navigation, and orientation system.

No additional teams or equipment are required to provide effective fire support.

o Modular deployment options for fire support: air deployable as a towed system, yet rapidly transformable to self-propelled LAV system.

o Most precise artillery system: advanced ballistic solution, on-board muzzle velocimeter, precise positioning and aiming.

o Exceptionally responsive: capable of receiving fire mission, aiming, loading, and firing in any direction in 14 seconds or less.

o Capable of firing any current type of rifled and smoothbore 120mm mortar ammunition.

Unloved
For a variety of reasons, some political, the Dragon Fire II has not yet been accepted by any branch of the US military.

Sometimes letting go of the past can be difficult.

In a land where bigger is better, downsizing can also prove problematic, particularly as the system requires far fewer troops to operate than established artillery - thereby reducing artillery commander's force complement and ultimately budget.

But this certainly should not be an issue in Australia, and if of interest at any point in the future, the Dragon Fire II system could be available to the ADF for evaluation.

Lincoln Parker works for the Victorian Government in Washington DC.