The U.S. Army is extending its operational reach into the Pacific region by upgrading weapons systems in one aspect of the service’s efforts to update its capabilities to meet current and future battlefield needs.
Specifically, the 25th Infantry Division, which is stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, will replace eight 105 mm and six 155 mm howitzers with a total of 16 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, launchers as part of the Army Transformation Initiative.
“As a part of [the initiative], we are integrating in High Mobility Army Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. Really, what this means for this division, that is a transformation and contact division, is that we are integrating in long-range precision fires that increases the ability to extend our operational reach,” Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commander of the 25th Infantry Division, told reporters on Tuesday.
The Pacific theater is the Pentagon’s priority due to the threat posed to U.S. interests in the region by China, which has spent years modernizing and building up its own military.
Evans highlighted that the mobility of the HIMARS, which are truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers capable of launching precision-guided rockets and missiles that can hit targets up to 250 miles away, allows U.S. forces to “better protect ourselves because we can shoot and then we can rapidly displace or move to an area that affords us better protection.”
“When you compare the HIMARS to a piece of towed artillery, a HIMARS can shoot and move all in one organic platform very rapidly,” he explained. “When you compare that to a towed artillery piece, it takes a little bit longer to be able to move, and we’re looking for the ability to quickly employ fires assets and then displace as quickly as possible to enable protection and survivability … on today’s battlefield.”
It will take roughly six weeks for all the HIMARS to get to the base, and relevant soldiers will be trained at the Schofield base.
A HIMARS battalion requires fewer soldiers than a traditional cannon artillery battalion. The net reduction is roughly 119 soldiers, according to Col. Daniel VonBenken, commander of the 25th Infantry Division Artillery Brigade.
Army officials said it was too early to tell how expensive the transition to the HIMARS will be.
The Army is shaking up weapon procurement and formations under the recently announced Army Transformation Initiative.
The HIMARS and 155 mm artillery have proven to have significant value on the battlefield in the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine’s need for aid defense systems and the projectiles required to operate them have led to an increased demand in such systems across the globe.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said on May 1 that his branch “learned in the last couple of years of the conflict in Ukraine is that the old way of doing war will no longer suffice.”
US AND AUSTRALIA COMMENCE MAJOR MILITARY TRAINING EXERCISE TALISMAN SABRE
The U.S. military is currently participating in its biennial defense training exercise with Australia, known as Talisman Sabre 25. Nineteen countries are participating in it, two are observing, and more than 35,000 service members are involved.
The early days of the exercise marked a historic first for the Australian army, as it was its first-ever HIMARS launch on home soil. Separately, Estonian forces launched their first HIMARS live-fire exercise after years of joint training with U.S. troops last week.
