Artillery battery
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In military science, a battery is a unit of artillery guns, mortars, or rockets, so grouped in order to facilitate battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion.
On land, batteries are usually grouped in larger units sometimes called battalions, which are further grouped into regiments or brigades, which may be artillery or combined arms.
The term was sometimes used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships.
Historically the term 'battery' referred to a group of 'guns' in action, typically besieging a fortress or town. Such batteries could be a mixture of types of guns, howitzers or mortars. A siege could involve many batteries. The term also came to be used for a group of guns in a fixed fortification, for coastal or frontier defence, and for the placement of guns in a temporary field position during a battle. During the 18th Century 'battery' started being used as an organizational term for a permanent unit of artillery in peace and war. By the late 19th Century this use had become normal and mostly replaced earlier terms for artillery units such as company or troop.
Around the middle of the 19th Century some armies started grouping their batteries into larger field units. Previously groups of batteries, etc, were grouped for administrative purposes not field deployment. The term adopted for the field group of batteries has varied between armies and periods. They include 'battalion', 'field brigade', 'group' and 'regiment'. To further confuse the issue some armies have at various times grouped artillery battalions or regiments into 'regiments', 'groups' or 'brigades', and in a few cases 'artillery brigades' have been grouped into 'artillery divisions'. Coastal artillery sometimes had completely different organizational terms.
Batteries also have sub-divisions. These too vary across armies and periods. They include 'platoon' or 'troop'. Individual guns may be called a 'section', or 'sub-section' where a section comprises two guns.
The rank of a battery commander has also varied, but is usually a captain or major.
The number of guns, howitzers, mortars or launchers in an organizational battery has also varied. The calibre of guns has usually been an important consideration. In the 19th Century 4 or 6 guns was usual. In the 20th it has varied between 1 and 12 for field artillery. Other types of artillery such as anti-tank or anti-aircraft have sometimes been larger. Some batteries have been 'dual-equipped' with two different types of gun or mortar, and taking whichever was most appropriate when they deployed for operations.
The term 'battery' has sometimes in association with warships. For example for a group of four or more cannon on a turret that fire in synchronization.
During the American Civil War, artillery batteries often consisted of six field pieces for the Union Army and four for the Confederate States Army, although this often varied. Batteries were divided into sections of two guns apiece, normally under the command of a lieutenant. The full battery was typically commanded by a captain. Often, particularly as the war progressed, individual batteries were grouped into battalions under a major or colonel of artillery. See Field Artillery in the American Civil War.
[edit] Modern military organization
In modern military organization, the military unit typically has 6 to 8 howitzers or 6 to 9 rocket launchers and 100 to 200 personnel. In the U.S. Army, generally a towed howitzer battery has 6 guns, where a self-propelled battery (such as an M 109 battery) contains 8. They are subdivided into:
- Field batteries, equipped with 105 mm howitzers or equivalent;
- Medium batteries, equipped with 155 mm howitzers or equivalent;
- Heavy batteries, which are equipped with guns of 203 mm or more calibre, but are now very rare; and
- Various more specialised types, such as anti-aircraft, missile, or Multiple Launch Rocket System batteries.
- Headquarters batteries, which themselves have no artillery pieces, but are rather the command and control organization for a group of firing batteries (for example, a regimental or battalion headquarters battery).
The battery is typically commanded by a captain in U.S. forces and is equivalent to an infantry company. In United Kingdom and Commonwealth forces a battery commander (like his infantry company commander counterpart) is a Major. However, in these armies the battery commander leads the 'tactical group' and is usually located with the supported arm (infantry, armour, etc) and is rarely on the battery position. Increasingly these direct support battery commanders are responsible for the orchestration of all forms of fire support (mortars, attack helicopters, other aircraft and naval gunfire) as well as artillery. General support battery commanders are likely to be at brigade or higher headquarters.
A US battery is divided into the following units:
- The firing section, which includes the individual gun sections. Each gun section is typically led by a staff sergeant (US Army Enlisted pay grade E-6); the firing section as a whole is usually led by a lieutenant and a senior NCO.
- The fire direction center (FDC), which computes firing solutions based on map coordinates, receives fire requests and feedback from observers and infantry units, and communicates directions to the firing section. It also receives commands from higher headquarters (i.e. the battalion FDC sends commands to the FDCs of all three of its batteries for the purpose of synchronizing a barrage).
Other armies can be significantly different, however. For example: the basic field organization being the 'gun group' and the 'tactical group'. The former being reconnaissance and survey, guns, command posts, logistic and equipment support elements, the latter being the battery commander and observation teams that deploy with the supported arm. In these armies the guns may be split into several fire units, which may deploy dispersed over an extended area or be concentrated into a single position. It some cases batteries have operationally deployed as 6 totally separate guns, although sections (pairs) are more usual.
During the Cold War NATO batteries that were dedicated to a nuclear role generally operated as 'sections' comprising a single gun or launcher.
Groupings of mortars, when they are not operated by artillery, are usually referred to as platoons.
[edit] See also
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