Field Artillery Exercise Builds Interoperability and Shared Understanding

U.S. and Kuwait military forces recently worked together to strengthen the partnership between the two countries through shared knowledge and understanding of each military's use of artillery. 

"This was the first in a series of exercises called Artillery Inferno II," said Capt. Phillip Herold, a plans officer with the 75th Field Artillery Brigade. "The main focus for us was to build a relationship with our Kuwait counterparts."

During Artillery Inferno II, held Sept. 7-10, 2020, U.S. military forces worked with Kuwait Land Forces Artillery to understand how each force plans and employs its artillery. It is part of a series of exercises focused on increasing the effectiveness and interoperability of both militaries' artillery assets.

"This training aims to unite the concept between the Kuwait artillery and the American artillery," said 1st Lt. Dhari Al-Bathali, an artillery officer in the Kuwait Land Forces.

The two countries working together is essential, especially when operating in the same area or together if called upon to fight on the battlefield.

"The end state is to establish inoperability and a common operating picture for bilateral filed artillery operations," said Herold. "So really, this is to be able to conduct fire missions with our counterparts."

There is a lot that goes into accurately landing a round on the enemy during a battle. Enter the Fire process. This process includes the procedures that take place before an artillery round leaves the chamber on its way to its target.

"A fire mission comes through our Fires coordination cell, we then have to transfer that data to our launchers before the round is fired," said Herold.
During the exercise, the Kuwait artillery forces shared ideas and knowledge with U.S. forces looking to improve their processes.

"Another focus of the training conducted was on the targeting process, as the Kuwait military was interested in how we did this," said Harold.

The Kuwait military is very interested to learn how we enable fires during a conventional fight to be able to increase their capabilities.

The exercise also encouraged future engagement between the two nations' militaries. 

"This partnership is important because it improves our inoperability with the host nation partners and helps us to have a common operating picture for the future," said Herold. "We look forward to continuing our working together with the Kuwait military to keep our partnership strong."