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56th Artillery Command

The 56th Artillery Command will plan and coordinate the employment of multi-domain fires and effects in support of U.S. Army Europe and Africa and/or a Combined Joint Force Land Component Command. The Theater Fires Command improves readiness and multinational interoperability by the integration of joint and multi-national fires in theater operations and exercises. The 56th Artillery Command is headquartered in Mainz-Kastel, Germany.

U.S. Army Europe and Africa conducted a reactivation ceremony for the 56th Artillery Command, the European Theater’s Fires Command, 08 November 2021 at Lucius D. Clay Kaserne, Wiesbaden, Germany. Maj. Gen. Stephen J. Maranian assumed duties as the Commanding General of the 56th Artillery Command, United States Army Europe and Africa, on Nov. 8, 2021. Commissioned into the Field Artillery in 1988, Maj. Gen. Maranian has served in a wide variety of positions throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Command Sgt. Maj. Walls assumed responsibility as the Command Sergeant Major of U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s 56th Artillery Command, Nov. 8, 2021. Command Sgt. Maj. Walls joined the U.S. Army in December 1994 as a 13B Cannon Crewmember.

"The reactivation of the 56th Artillery Command will provide U.S. Army Europe and Africa with significant capabilities in multi-domain operations" said Maj. Gen. Stephen J. Maranian, Commanding General, 56th Artillery Command.” It will further enable the synchronization of joint and multinational fires and effects, and employment of future long range surface to surface fires across the U.S. Army Europe and Africa area of responsibility."

The command may have hypersonic missile capability when this technology is “fully developed and deployed,” supposedly sometime in 2023, according to the Pentagon. Just a day before the 56th AC ceremony, the Pentagon announced that the very first “prototype hypersonic ground equipment” had been delivered to a stateside artillery unit. A battalion of the US Army’s 1st Corps located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state received trucks, trailers, four erector launchers and other components of the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), but no missiles yet. The name “Dark Eagle” comes from Rob Strider, the official in charge of the army’s hypersonic project office. The missile itself is being developed by the Alabama-based Dynetics, known for the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), the Gremlin drone, some rocket engines and IT services. The principal weapon systems integrator will be Lockheed Martin.

UK papers hyped the revival of a Cold War-era US artillery unit in Germany, supposed to be armed with ‘Dark Eagle’ hypersonic missiles that will be able reach Moscow in mere minutes, once they are developed. ‘Dark Eagle has landed’ proclaimed The Suny, originally reporting that the new US missiles could “blitz Russia” in just six minutes – before revising that to “21 minutes and 30 seconds” – along with a graphic showing Moscow being vaporized in a mushroom cloud.

The unit takes it’s lineage from the 56th Field Artillery Command, which last served on active duty in Europe from 1986 to 1991 as the Theater’s Pershing Missile Headquarters. The shoulder sleeve insignia consisted of disc with a white border, a scarlet disc centered on a blue background and surmounted at center by a vertical black missile silhouette outlined in white and issuing to base a white-edged scarlet flame and white smoke cloud, the missile flanked by two diagonal yellow lightning flashes issuing from either side of the nose cone. Immediately above the disc an arc tab consisting of a dark green background inscribed “Pershing” in scarlet letters with a scarlet border. Symbolism: Scarlet and gold (yellow) are the colors used for field artillery; blue denotes the assigned infantry support. The destructive power and target capability of the Pershing missile are suggested by the red disc at center, and the upright missile signifies the readiness of the unit. The lightning flashes refer to the ability of the missile team to act and strike quickly in event of need. The tab denotes the weapon system with which the command was last armed.

The 56th Field Artillery Command was constituted 14 September 1942 in the Army of the United States as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 56th Coast Artillery Brigade. Activated 10 April 1943 at Camp Stewart, Georgia. Reorganized and redesignated 28 May 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 56th Antiaircraft Artillery Brigade. Inactivated 3 December 1945 at Camp Shanks, New York. Allotted 10 February 1951 to the Regular Army and activated at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts. Reorganized and redesignated 20 March 1958 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 56th Artillery Brigade. Inactivated 24 December 1964 at Coventry, Rhode Island.

On 10 January 1958, Secretary of Defense McElroy announced that the Army would develop a solid-propellant ballistic missile to replace the liquid-propellant Redstone, which had become operational that year. The new missile was known as the Pershing. The missile, armed with a nuclear warhead, extended the field army commander’s range up to 400 nautical miles (740 kilometers). The Pershing battalion had a headquarters and headquarters battery, a service battery, and four firing batteries. Each firing battery had one launcher. Two battalions were stationed at Fort Sill (reduced to one battalion in 1968), while the other three deployed to Germany to replace the Redstone as the Seventh Army’s general-support tactical weapon system.

The controlling headquarters in Germany was the 56th Artillery Group, which was charged with the mission of providing fires in general support of a field army. The 56th Field Artillery Command was activated 18 September 1970 in Germany. Redesignated 15 March 1972 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 56th Field Artillery Brigade. Reorganized and redesignated 17 January 1986 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 56th Field Artillery Command.

The brigade included the three Pershing battalions, plus an infantry battalion for area security. New tables published in 1974 authorized each battalion an aggregate strength of 922, the biggest change being the elimination of one firing battery. Still, each battery had nine launchers for a total of twenty-seven launchers per battalion. Although the Pershing battalions were reorganized under the new TOEs, each continued to be supplemented with a fourth firing battery for a total of thirty-six Pershing launchers per battalion.

The new Pershing II became operational in December 1983. The missile had a range of 1,200 miles (1,930.8 kilometers), an improved warhead, and rapid emplacement and displacement times. In December 1985 the Army completed deployment in the Federal Republic of Germany of the Pershing II missile system. The U.S. 56th Field Artillery Command was equipped with 36 single-warhead Pershing IIs at each of three sites, making a total of 108 missiles. Deployment of the Pershing II system was completed on schedule, and the Army conducted a number of successful flight tests using the 56th Field Artillery Command's troops and missile systems.

But in December 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which spelled the end of the Pershing. The missiles were phased out gradually, and the last of the Pershing battalions was inactivated in 1991. The first missile eliminated under INF, a Pershing 1A, was destroyed in September 1988 at the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant by static firing and crushing in the presence of a Soviet inspection team. Most Pershing missiles were destroyed by explosive demolition or burning, the solid fuel being burned during static firing, after which the missile canister was crushed. All 169 Pershing 1A short-range missiles were eliminated within the eighteen-month deadline, or by 7 July 1989.

Demolition of the Pershing missiles also affected the status of approximately twelve thousand Army troops in Europe. Despite strong congressional sentiment to reduce U.S. military strength in Europe by about twenty-five thousand, the total number ofAmerican troops made excess by the destruction of missiles under the INF Treaty, Army commanders in Europe sought to retain most of the Army troops by reclassifying or retraining them. The Army discontinued four enlisted Military Occupational Specialties (MOSes) and one warrant officer MOS peculiar to the Pershing, but the majority of Pershing technicians were transferred to the MLRS MOS.

Implementation of the INF Treaty required a conventional force adjustment by the Army. It proposed to restructure its four Pershing II battalions-the 1st, 2d, and 4th Battalions of the 9th Field Artillery, 56th Field Artillery Command, in West Germany, and the 3d Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, 214th Field Artillery Brigade, at Fort Sill-into a field artillery brigade. Destruction of the Pershing coincided with the Army's plans to expand its multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) forces. These plans called for converting three battalions ofthe 56th Field Artillery Command (Pershing) and the 2d Battalion, 32d Field Artillery (Lance), to MLRS battalions beginning in FY 1989. The Army also intended to convert two Pershing batteries of the 3d Battalion, 9th Field Artillery (Pershing), at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to MLRS batteries. Equipment for this conversion was available from on-hand assets at Fort Sill and the loan of MLRS launchers from the Oklahoma National Guard.

The 56th Field Artillery Command inactivated in June 1991 following the signing of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty [INF].