History Meets Science

What Is Shoot and Scoot in Artillery? Why Mobility Now Matters More Than Ever Author's Note I spent about two years in an artillery fire direction center in the 1990s, serving in the headquarters battery of an M114 towed howitzer battalion. This article combines that firsthand service experience with open-source reporting on counter-battery radar, UAV surveillance, and artillery survivability in the war in Ukraine. If a Ukrainian gun crew fires and doesn't move, they may have a few minutes before counter-battery radar pinpoints their position and passes it to the enemy. If a drone is already watching the area, they may have less. That window — closing faster with every year of this war — is exactly what shoot-and-scoot was built to beat. I understand that window in a specific way. I spent two years in an artillery fire direction center in the 1990s, in the headquarters battery of an M114 towed howitzer battalion. The drills we ran weren't explained in ter...

The K9A1 self-propelled howitzer has become one of the most widely exported artillery systems in the world—and the pace keeps accelerating. But here's the question worth asking: why are defense ministries around the world choosing the K9 over proven systems like Germany's PzH 2000? The answer isn't simply firepower. It comes down to automation, delivery speed, total cost of ownership, and a procurement pipeline that Western competitors cannot currently match. I've seen part of this story up close. During my military service, I served as a Fire Direction Center (FDC) specialist on the M114 155mm towed howitzer—computing firing data, coordinating with gun crews, and running live-fire missions. In field exercises, I observed the M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer operating alongside us. The contrast was immediate and striking: emplacement times were far shorter, and the time to first round was dramatically compressed by automation. That contrast is what makes...