Two news stories should have been merged into one. The first one discusses automated American artillery:
A new Army research project calls for developing autonomous systems that can perform functions such as loading shells into cannon. It also follows another project that aims to replace forward observers, who call in artillery fire, with robots.
The research solicitation calls for developing “autonomous robotic systems that are capable of semi- and fully autonomous munitions handling inside a weapons system.
The second discusses the British developments of their Brimstone missile that started as a British variant of America's Hellfire anti-tank missile. New variants function as precision artillery:
A Polish firm (PZG) has already licensed Brimstone production for the surface-to-surface role as long distance guided missiles systems. The Poles are ready to offer a version of the old Cold War era BMP infantry fighting vehicle (which the Poles have plenty of) with the turret replaced by a box launcher carrying twelve Brimstones. All of these missiles can be launched quickly to destroy ten or more tanks up to twenty kilometers away. This BMP also has a RWS (remote weapons system) mount with a heavy machine-gun. Apparently a resupply vehicle can quickly replace the empty launcher box with a loaded one. A second “tank destroyer” vehicle is a larger armored vehicle of a new design carrying up to 24 Brimstones in four box launchers. These “Brimstone Mobile Artillery” vehicles would avoid the front line and take fire requests like an artillery unit. Artillery forward observers would use their laser range finders (often built into binoculars that can save the GPS location of something the observer has located and transmit that GPS target location, along with the distance between the target and friendly troops, so that the needed number of missiles can be fired.
If that forward observer is robotic and the artillery is robotic, with persistent surveillance we are getting to a point of rapid attrition of enemy assets. The enemy will follow us in short order.
If the Lanchester's Square Law will accurately model battles at some scale, the robotic phalanx will arrive.
