XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery
The XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery provides fire support to XVIII Airborne Corps Forces, anywhere in the world, on short notice, by land, sea, or air. XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery is the headquarters for all non-divisional artillery within the XVIII Airborne Corps.
XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery must be ready to command and control additional fire support assets--up to eight brigades--as they become available in theater during contingency operations. Units within the Corps Artillery can be given the mission of reinforcing, general support, or general support reinforcing. This battlefield organization allows the Commander to mass all artillery fires and/or weight a specific effort to influence the battle.
XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery provides long-range, accurate, destructive, day or night fire support for all combat operations.
During recent years, XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery has evolved into a fully functional Headquarters whose mission is to maintain a crisis response field artillery force. The force is capable of rapid deployment by air, to include parachute assault by selected elements, and deployment by surface means anywhere in the world ready to provide conventional fires and coordinate all other fire support assets against surface targets. The massive firepower of Corps Artillery is tailored to meet various contingencies and include up to six field artillery brigades.
The Automated Deep Operations Coordination System (ADOCS) is an information system which provides the Fire Support Element and the Deep Operations Coordination Cell (DOCC) an integrated set of tools for fire support coordination data management and analysis, along with mission planning, coordination, and execution. ADOCS is organized as a series of data managers including: map; fire mission coordination; suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) planner; artillery locations; aircraft interdiction (AI) nominations; close air support (CAS) mission coordination; airspace control request; aviation routes; and airspace control points, all of which enables ADOCS to provide horizontal and vertical coordination amongst echelons.
Automated Tactical and Fire Direction systems formerly used by the XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery were the Light Tactical Fire Direction System (LT TACFIRE) and the Interim Fire Support Automated System (IFSAS). These systems were capable of transmitting, receiving, storing, and processing critical information needed on the battlefield by Field Artillery units. LT TACFIRE and IFSAS were used until replaced in the 4th quarter of FY1997, with the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS). AFATDS increased the Corps Artillery's capability of processing battlefield information.
The M198 155mm towed howitzer is an extended-range (30km with rocket assisted projectile(RAP)), CH-47D helicopter-transportable and air drop capable howitzer that provides general support fires for our airborne, air assault and light/heavy infantry divisions.
The multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) (M270) was designed for counterfire missions, however, it's wide dispersion of submunitions from the dual-purpose, improved conventional munitions warhead makes MLRS an excellent weapon for attacking large or hard to locate targets. It is well suited for use against targets beyond the range of cannon artillery or for which a large percentage of damage is required.
The Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) is a semiballistic missile with a maximum range in excess of 100 kilometers. It is fired from the same launcher as MLRS. Each missile carries 950 M-74, antipersonnel/material bomblets dispersed in a "footprint" approximately 600 square yards.
Firefinder radar are multiple-tracked, phased array systems capable of detecting and tracking several rounds fired from different locations simultaneously and then backplotting their trajectories to determine the points of origin for attack by counterfire. The tracking of a single round is sufficient to locate a target accurately for attack. The radar can also register and adjust friendly fire.
