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                    "BESAN\u00c7ON, France \u2014 The French Army\u2019s 68th African Artillery Regiment is reorganizing its gun batteries into smaller units and creating a dedicated section to prepare firing positions and set up decoys, a move aimed at increasing survivability on a modern battlefield where drones and counter-battery fire pose a constant threat.The 68e RAA is reshuffling its batteries of 155 mm Caesar howitzers into three two-gun sections from two four-gun sections, while keeping the overall size of its fleet of truck-mounted howitzers unchanged for now, according to Col. R\u00e9my Jaillet, who commands the artillery formation.The regiment is relying on the Atlas fire-control system to coordinate multiple sections and retain the ability to mass fires despite dispersing the guns, Jaillet said on the sidelines of an innovation day organized by the 7th Armored Brigade at its headquarters in Besan\u00e7on in eastern France earlier this month.\u201cAs counter-intuitive as it may seem, splitting sections into pairs increases the availability of fires and therefore their responsiveness,\u201d Jaillet told Defense News in a followup comment via email. \u201cSmaller, more dispersed units also improve their survivability and resilience in a degraded environment with a strong counter-battery threat.\u201dThe move comes as NATO militaries study lessons from Ukraine, where persistent drone observation has made firing positions vulnerable to counter-battery fire. Ukrainian forces have responded by dispersing guns, shortening firing missions, concealing positions and separating ammunition from firing units, according to an analysis by the Royal United Services Institute.Jaillet said the reorganized artillery structure is spearheaded by the 68e RAA and shouldn\u2019t currently be considered a standard format for the Army. In the reorganization, each battery has fewer guns, but there are more batteries, he said.Col. R\u00e9my Jaillet (r), commander of the French Army\u2019s 68th African Artillery Regiment, speaks to a fellow officer during the innovation day of the 7th Armored Brigade in Besan\u00e7on, France, on Sept. 9, 2026. (Rudy Ruitenberg/staff)The 68e RAA is one of six French artillery regiments equipped with the Caesar, manufactured by KNDS. The French Army\u2019s model for a combat-ready brigade includes an artillery regiment equipped with 16 Caesar self-propelled howitzers and eight MEPAC mortars.The regiment\u2019s new artillery-support section is in charge of identifying all firing positions, setting up decoys and prepositioning ammunition, in a move away from each gun section having its own small reconnaissance element, according to Jaillet.The idea is to \u201crecreate a dynamic artillery maneuver\u201d by bringing together all functions related to survivability, maneuver and coherent deployment under a section commander, instead of having two firing sections that are autonomous in preparing their movement and protection, \u201cwith all the limitations that entails,\u201d Jaillet said.The colonel said the new structure \u201cin a way\u201d recreates the reconnaissance sections that existed previously in French artillery formations, but augmented with new capabilities, particularly in the field of deception.\u2018Opacity bubbles\u2019 and metallic cagesIn the regiment\u2019s deployment zone, Caesar guns will wait before fire missions in what Jaillet called \u201copacity bubbles,\u201d concealed and emitting as little as possible to avoid detection. The support section will set up ammunition resupply plots, decoys and equip firing positions with protective metallic cages that the self-propelled howitzers can reverse into.The 68e RAA tested the new organizational model at the Canjuers military camp in southern France earlier this year and again during the French large-scale exercise Orion 2026 that ran until the end of April. The experience allowed the regiment to fine-tune the structure and components such as the protective cages and the decoys, the colonel said.The first Caesar battery will permanently transition to the new structure next year, with the remainder to follow, Jaillet said.The French Army, during a drone observation-artillery shooting competition in Romania in August, fired its Caesar howitzers from dug-in positions, which Jaillet called a particular case that \u201cwe shouldn\u2019t turn into a general rule.\u201d\u201cThe essence of the Caesar is to provide survivability through mobility,\u201d Jaillet said.While the static frontline and the transparency of the battlefield in Ukraine have translated into \u201cvery defensive\u201d tactics, with prepared positions that require heavy engineering assets and lengthy groundwork, Jaillet said those are \u201cnot the be-all and end-all. We need to be able to adopt a more dynamic approach.\u201dThe biggest change for artillery due to the widespread use of drones has been in target acquisition, with \u201cthe real shock, the real turning point\u201d happening before the war in Ukraine, during the 2020 conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to the regimental commander.Azerbaijan deployed integrated target acquisition and strike systems during the conflict, with drones providing target information via rapid communications that enabled artillery strikes to be called in, the colonel said. Jaillet likened it to a modern iteration of aircraft observing targets and adjusting artillery fire, with drones creating a new synergy and accelerating the sensor-to-shooter loop.The Atlas fire-control system used by the 68e RAA is interoperable with brigade-level systems such as SitaWare command-and-control, but Jaillet said more capabilities are needed to link sensors and effectors across the battlefield.The structure of the regiment\u2019s liaison, observation and coordination detachments is evolving, from fairly self-contained, \u201cessentially a vehicle with a team inside,\u201d to teams combining an armored vehicle capability with ground, radar and drone capabilities, Jaillet said.The colonel said he\u2019s satisfied with the regiment\u2019s equipment, including the Caesar howitzer and the MEPAC mortar that\u2019s entering service, as well as the Thales-produced Murin ground-surveillance radar and Delair\u2019s DT46 reconnaissance drone.\u201cFor ground-to-ground artillery and target acquisition, this is high-quality equipment that has proven itself in operations,\u201d Jaillet said. \u201cThere\u2019s always room for technological improvement. The battlefield is expanding, so we need to increase range and improve responsiveness.\u201dRudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics."
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