Esper: Long-range precision fires will serve joint purpose

Long-range precision fires are the Army's No. 1 modernization priority not only because they will provide a critical capability but also because they can be used to benefit the joint force, according to service Secretary Mark Esper.

"We think that for a number of reasons, we need to make sure we have overmatch in indirect fires, not least for a ground campaign, but also we need to have the ability to support our sister services," Esper said during a June 5 talk at the Brookings Institution.

Relating to Multi-Domain Operations, LRPF could be used to help the other services gain entry to a certain theater in a future fight. For instance, the Army could support the Air Force by suppressing enemy air defenses, or the Navy by shooting "multihundred-mile range" rockets or artillery from a coastline, he said.

The Army intends to spend nearly $1.6 billion from fiscal year 2020 to FY-24 in support of LRPF efforts, according to a comprehensive modernization strategy submitted to Congress and obtained last month by Inside Defense.

Esper, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer and Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson meet "pretty regularly" to discuss how each service's research and development efforts could help the others, he said, and they do not want to duplicate any efforts.

"I don't want to spend the time, money or manpower to figure out what the Marines, or the Air Force or the Navy [have] already figured out. We need to share," he said.

Esper added that he and the Army's chief of staff agree that the service should be looking into the technologies the Marine Corps is developing -- for example, personal protective equipment -- and vice versa, and that that sort of idea sharing should happen "on a much broader scale."