The Dragon Fire Experiments

As many of the long-term readers of this magazine will remember, the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) has conducted a series of experiments on automating medium-caliber artillery since 1998. The concept demonstrator system was called the Dragon Fire, and it pioneered the use of actuators (motors) to aim, load, and fire direct support artillery weapons. It wasn’t the first actuated artillery system though. The Army used radar-controlled and actuated antiaircraft artillery in the latter part of World War II. My uncle, 2dLt Gervais Nolin, a P–51 pilot based on Iwo Jima in 1945, witnessed a two-shot engagement that blew a Japanese bomber out of the air using one of those systems. He told me that “the second round probably wasn’t needed.” The automation of ground-mounted tube artillery just took a while longer to come about.

The Dragon Fire was initially developed as an experimental, self-contained, and mobile artillery system to support the air-delivered element. It was more than just a 120mm rifled mortar; it had its own radio, fire control computer, and self-location/orientation system so that when it was offloaded from the aircraft, all it needed was ammunition and one or two gunners to go to work. Since it was meant for supporting the forward distributed elements, it was also designed to be able to shoot 6400 mils (360 degrees) without hesitation, since the enemy seldom cooperates by limiting his operations to being within a narrow range fan.

The latest version of the Dragon Fire, the XM–326 automated mortar, weighs just 3,450 pounds; uses electric actuators for aiming, loading, and firing; and uses an advanced fire control system based on a modified version of the Army’s M–95 mortar fire control system. It is a very compact weapon and was designed from the outset to be able to fit inside the MV–22 Osprey and helicopters. In its “standby” mode, where the tube is stored horizontal to the ground waiting for a fire mission, it is low enough that a person can actually step over it. This compactness can be an asset for using small areas for firing positions (like hilltops) and keeping your firing position concealed.

In live fire tests at Yuma Proving Ground, AZ, the Dragon Fire demonstrated that it could receive a fire mission on its radio, then aim, load, and fire within 18 seconds—in any direction. It also demonstrated very high precision, putting all of its rounds within a circle error probable of only 15 meters. The Dragon Fire was designed by the Army Armament Research, Design, and Engineering Command and built by Rock Island Arsenal, IL, which makes it one of the few government-designed and government-built artillery pieces to come along for a long while.

This innovative concept demonstrator has other capabilities too:

Since it is self-contained, it doesn’t require a supporting fire direction center, a communications section, a survey team, or most other support. It only needs two to four crewmembers and ammunition to be ready to give fast and accurate support. In terms of “expeditionary footprint” this means that all you need to carry is the Dragon Fire, a couple of crewmembers, and some ammunition. The rest of the tents, trucks, and extra mouths to feed aren’t essential. Smaller footprint means that smaller, tighter firing positions can be used and a lot fewer aircraft are needed to get there.

It is capable of receiving fire missions and fire plans from the supported maneuver fire support coordination centers and, if the situation requires, can receive targets directly from the forward observers using the target location, designation, and handoff system. This last option is called the “sensor-to-shooter” mode and would give outstanding responsiveness to the supported infantry units.

A light armored vehicle (LAV) was modified to accept the Dragon Fire—including its carriage—internally to allow fast conversion from a towed, helicopter-mobile system to an armored, self-propelled fire support system. This concept would allow direct support artillery batteries to change over to match the maneuver support requirements. As an expeditionary system, this would mean that commanders could choose to use the Dragon Fire in towed mode for helicopter/tiltrotor lifts inshore and, once the maneuver phase begins, bring the LAVs inland, mate them to their mortars, and then get moving as a mobile and armored system with the supported maneuver column.

In either mode, the Dragon Fire has a maximum rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute, each round individually aimed by the fire control computer. The Dragon Fire always “levels the bubbles” for every shot.
It is capable of emplacement and preparation for fire in less than 60 seconds and displaced just as quickly. It is designed with a one-button power carriage elevation system that makes emplacement and displacement fast and sure.

When employed in a rapid counterfire mode, the Dragon Fire can receive and process a target quickly and effectively. During the Army’s counter rockets, artillery, mortars (C-RAM) experiments, the Dragon Fire had rounds on the “enemy” mortar system only 50 seconds after the enemy fired at a range of 5,400 meters. During C-RAM, the Dragon Fire was sited 3 miles from the command center but was controlled and fired by radio over that distance with ease.

Its fire control system is capable of networking with other Dragon Fire-like weapons and operating them all as a single, integrated system for fire plans. With one Dragon Fire acting as a fire direction center, it is able to control any number of other Dragon Fires within radio (or wire) range. Very complex fire plans can be executed with a minimum of time and personnel and hit the time marks on the millisecond. This capability can give supported units far more effective preparation fires, final protective fires, and any number of new and innovative programs of fires.

In the LAV, the aiming gyro system and the electric actuator system provide the potential for fire-on-the-move from the vehicle. If this capability is successfully developed, a maneuver column would receive its fire support in a full 360 degrees from within the column without having to stop and disrupt the momentum of the attack. In this method of employment, known or suspected targets could be accurately engaged long before we are within direct observation and direct fire range.

There has been some discussion about developing advanced systems like this without an official requirement document already completed and waiting in the wings. This gets it all backwards: concepts come first, followed by experiments to validate those concepts that work, and then those concepts become requirements. The Dragon Fire is an example of an advanced concept demonstrator that framed several new directions for artillery requirements through successful experimentation. The Dragon Fire has proven that an automated and self-contained artillery system can give greater mobility, flexibility, speed, and precision.

In an expeditionary environment, all of these qualities are important because all of our initial entry forces will need the highest possible efficiencies to counter the enemy’s advantages. The higher precision can also help us to fire fewer artillery rounds to gain more effect on target, which means that we would need fewer sling loads of ammunition moving inshore, and the further inland we have to go, the more that the tradeoff between fuel for the aircraft and the cargo it carries becomes a limiting factor.

There has always been skepticism about automating artillery, since it would seem to add complexity to one of the most basic weapons on the battlefield. The answer is straightforward: automation allows much greater speed and precision in employing the weapon, and it requires fewer Marines to keep it operating. The Dragon Fire has proven that automating the aiming process results in near guided munition accuracy from ordinary and less expensive rounds.

As to why MCWL would go to the trouble of developing its own experimental artillery system, it’s because the Marine Corps has its own unique missions and whatever we bring to the fight had better be compact and supportable and capable of being flown in with the air-delivered element. The Army doesn’t have the same set of requirements, and it’s unlikely that the Army will find the time on its own to design things specifically for our missions. Lately, the Army has been concentrating on heavier systems, like their nonline of sight cannon, so we shouldn’t expect them to work on lighter and more expeditionary systems for us anytime soon. There has also been quite a bit of development of missiles for artillery support, but at $200,000 or so per shot, we aren’t likely to get too many of them for our use.

Tube artillery is still the most cost-effective ground fire support system and too important to all of our missions to be left on the boat. The latest version of the Dragon Fire has potential to be the next version of the expeditionary fire support system, and if the concept of using the system as a “convertible” system for employment as a towed and self-propelled system proves desirable, it could also be the next direct support system for artillery, displacing some of the 155mm weapons back to general support in the artillery regiment organization for combat.

We have just completed a conversion of the one Dragon Fire that we have as a permanently mounted LAV mortar system to support the LAV program manager’s requirement for indirect fire modernization. It will be starting its testing in this configuration soon, and it promises to bring new capabilities to the light armored reconnaissance battalions in the near future.

The Dragon Fire experiments demonstrated the importance of concept-based experimentation by showing that advanced concepts can be successfully developed and tested in-house. Based on the successes of experiments like this, the Marine Corps is able to better define its future directions and then frame its true emerging requirements. The Dragon Fire project is one of those successful technology demonstrations that gives us some essential tools for advancing our capabilities to build a more capable and effective Marine Corps for the future.