The God of War is angry with America's loss of faith in the power of the big guns.
The Army realizes it needs artillery again:
The end of the Cold War hastened the decline. From 218 artillery battalions in 1989, the number of Regular Army, Reserve and National Guard units shrank to 141 by 1999. In the 2003 Iraq War, well-trained artillery crews were being used as infantry.
However, the U.S. Army has belatedly realized that it needs its big guns. First, while Russia and China were upgrading their artillery, the U.S. spent the 2000s focused on counterinsurgency (COIN) against poorly-armed militants rather than a conflict against well-armed major powers.
I'd be happy if the Army could spend money on other things. But the Army understands that the Air Force won't necessarily be where the Army needs it, when it needs it. Hence long-range fires. ...
[With] a return to great power threats and the elevation of conventional warfare, Air Force priorities are changing and the Army has little choice unless it wants to do without the missions the Air Force won't prioritize.
Seriously, the Air Force will float any BS notion to avoid providing close air support:
"I can’t predict the future, but I would bet the non-kinetic effects will reign supreme," [the Air Force chief of staff] said during the Dubai International Air Chiefs Conference. "Now we’re somewhere stuck in the thinking that mass needs to be physical. What if we did not have to produce sorties to achieve the same effect? What if a future small diameter bomb looks like ones and zeros?"
How long did the the Air Force chief of staff have to practice in the mirror to avoid peeing his pants with laughter as he presented that notion?
The other Army artillery problem is what the Russian guns can do.
Please adjust your pucker factor accordingly.
