Invited lecture 1: The tactical use of artillery, a historical perspective (the Belgian army during World War I)…

In August 1914, the Belgian field army had only light guns 75mm. During the first battles with the German army, it became clear that their tactical use was close to that of the Battle of Waterloo (1815). However, after the campaign of 1914 stalled and trench warfare ensued, the Belgian artillery had to reinvent itself. More types of artillery pieces (guns, howitzers and mortars) appeared. Heavy guns and howitzers were seen as necessary to destroy as many enemy positions as possible. Counterbattery fire also became more sophisticated. The artillery had to learn to master camouflage technics. Their tactical deployment became more flexible. Year by year, the cooperation with the infantry got better. Instead of seeking for the destruction of enemy positions, its suppression became the aim of the artillery operations in support of the infantry. By 1918, after four years of trench warfare, the Belgian artillery had completely changed its arsenal, its tactical missions and its mindset.

During this lecture, we will take a closer look at this four-year learning process. In doing so, we will also focus on the problems the Belgian artillery faced during the war.

Invited lecture 2: The tactical use of artillery, a modern fire control perspective…

Due to the availability of modern, accurate guided weapon systems and associated collateral damage concerns, conventional field artillery systems have been somewhat relegated to a secondary role for both offensive and defensive operations. However, recent events in Ukraine have shown that in operations where sophisticated guided weapons are rapidly depleted in an extended conflict, basic artillery fire using unguided projectiles can still play a significant role. This presentation describes how the accuracy of field artillery fire may be predicted, leading to a more effective use of this weapon system against enemy forces while mitigating the effects of unintended damage to collateral concerns. Topics covered in the lecture include specification of accuracy metrics, stability of unguided projectiles, modeling trajectories with sufficient fidelity, unit effects or ballistic partials and the error budget approach to calculating the accuracy of typical artillery battery volley fires. To tie all these topics together, the presentation concludes with the demonstration of a program to calculate typical 155mm artillery shell accuracy using public domain data.