Firing hundreds of KM in some cases, accurate within a few hundred feet? How is that possible? And how do they “dial in” new coordinates exactly? It all seems like magic to me
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So artillery in the modern age is directed at targets by artillery observers or forward observers, sometimes FISTers: soldiers that utilize a menagerie of methods to watch over a battlefield and give the coordinates of targets to the artillery pieces firing. This can be done either by sending coordinates to a fires direction center, a headquarters where battlefield intel is needed in conjunction with firing artillery, or straight to the artillery pieces themselves.
Lasers, GPS, maps, compasses, binoculars, and drones among many methods to find the coordinates for a target. What’s called a fire mission is conducted where a round is dropped at initial coordinates given to artillery pieces and then by direction from the observer, the guns adjust and fire until rounds hit target. If you’ve ever heard ‘fire for effect’, that is what is called in for the typical bombardment of accurate rounds on target. Of course, if you’re aided by GPS, and computers and such, the initial fire mission might just be a fire for effect without the need to adjust rounds. Communication between entities is the key to accurate artillery fire.
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