1. | ADM MARCH 2008 www.australiandefence.com.au50
Newsletter from America
Lincoln Parker | Washington DC
LAST month I visited US Marine Corps Base,
Quantico in northern Virginia, just outside
Washington DC. I went to meet with LTCOL
Rick Lindsey (ret) at the Marine Corps
Warfighting Laboratory to hear about a mor-
tar based system that has been designed to
provide mobile fire support for expeditionary
forces. But the Dragon Fire II is certainly not
the old mortar system you’re used to. Dragon
Fire II is a light weight automated mortar-fir-
ing system designed for digital fire control,
networked communications capabilities, and
fire on the move – with precision.
Dragon Fire II was specifically designed to
be mobile, light and lethal. It can be trans-
ported within an amphibious ship, or a vari-
ety of heavy lift aircraft like the Hercules or
C-17. It fits within the MV-22 Osprey, CH-53,
and can be towed by any available military
vehicle. Whether it is being employed as a
towed weapon or as a self-propelled, LAV-
based weapon, Dragon Fire II will be capable
of full-time navigation, communication, and
networking within the fires coordination
In the past, when you thought of mortars old images of World War 2 GI’s loading rounds into
small tubes came to mind. Not anymore.
Dragon Fire II: the new face
of mobile artillery?
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2. www.australiandefence.com.au MARCH 2008 ADM | 51
Lincoln Parker | Washington DC
Newsletter from America
system. Any Dragon Fire II is capable of act-
ing as a master system to plan fires, pass
safety information with locations and fires
coordination measures, and controlling sub-
ordinate Dragon Fire II weapons to imple-
ment precise, rapid and efficient fire support.
R&D
Since 1997 the US Marine Corps Warfighting
laboratory has been experimenting with the
Dragon Fire – through multiple iterations. It
was developed to explore applying automa-
tion to an artillery system and has success-
fully demonstrated that automation could be
reliable as well as significantly improve pre-
cision and responsiveness. The Dragon Fire
was also designed for integration onto a
Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) chassis to form
a modular artillery system, allowing com-
manders to tailor artillery mobility to imme-
diate tactical requirements.
Dragon Fire II uses electric actuators for
extremely fast response and increased accu-
racy in weapon pointing. In the event an auto-
matic system fails it has manual backups for
continuous mission support. The fire control
computer system has been entirely redesigned
to use the US Army M95 Mortar Fire Control
System (MFCS) as its basis, allowing digital
communication with the Advanced Field
Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) as an
artillery system.
Let’s look at some stats
With a range of over 8km (or 13km with rocket-
assisted projectiles) it weighs in at just 1.705
tonnes and has a length of less than 2.5 metres.
Its range of traverse is 360 degrees, the time to
process target, aim, and load is 14 seconds, with
an average precision at 8,000m (CEP) of 25
metres! It can fire 10 rounds per minute for 2
minutes, or four rounds per minute sustained
fire. But most impressive, and perhaps relevant
to Australia, is the vastly reduced crewing
capacity required to operate the system, and
lastly its cost. Most estimates show it costing
about 50 per cent of a standard artillery system
being used by the Marine Corps today.
Other key features include:
• Entirely self-contained: on-board fire con-
trol computer, communication, navigation,
and orientation system. No additional
teams or equipment are required to provide
effective fire support.
• Modular deployment options for fire
support: air deployable as a towed system,
yet rapidly transformable to self-propelled
LAV system.
• Most precise artillery system: advanced
ballistic solution, on-board muzzle veloci-
meter, precise positioning and aiming.
• Exceptionally responsive: capable of
receiving fire mission, aiming, loading, and
firing in any direction in 14 seconds or less.
• Capable of firing any current type of rifled
and smoothbore 120mm mortar ammunition.
Unloved
For a variety of reasons, some political, the
Dragon Fire II has not yet been accepted by
any branch of the US military. Sometimes let-
ting go of the past can be difficult. In a land
where bigger is better, downsizing can also
prove problematic, particularly as the system
requires far fewer troops to operate than estab-
lished artillery – thereby reducing artillery
commander’s force complement and ultimately
budget. But this certainly should not be an
issue in Australia, and if of interest at any point
in the future, the Dragon Fire II system could
be available to the ADF for evaluation.
Lincoln Parker works for the Victorian
Government in Washington DC.
AD