A U.S. Army High Mobility Artillery Rocket System from the 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, fires as part of Nordic Strike 22, at Vidsel Test Range, Sweden, in September 2022. V Corps on Thursday said it is launching a HIMARS apprenticeship program for allies and partners. (Devin Klecan/U.S. Army)
The U.S. is expanding efforts to prepare European allies to fight using a mobile rocket system that has played a key role in the war in Ukraine and now is factoring heavily into crisis response plans for NATO's eastern flank.
The Army’s V Corps said that it is launching a new initiative that will bring together senior military leaders in Europe for a summit this spring on all things related to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS. Following the summit, the Army will begin an apprenticeship program in which foreign soldiers will embed with U.S. units, V Corps said.
Lt. Gen. John Kolasheski, the V Corps commander, said HIMARS enables allies to “rapidly mass-fire” from a distance, thereby allowing units to maneuver with greater flexibility.
“This gives us an operational advantage over an adversary and is critical during large-scale ground combat,” he said in the V Corps statement Thursday.
Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, interest in the mobile rocket system has surged as countries such as Poland and the Baltic states add such weaponry to their arsenals.
During the past year, the Army in particular has sought to showcase ways that HIMARS can be used to extend the combat reach of units in crisis scenarios. From the Arctic to the Baltics and the Black Sea region, U.S. Army Europe and Africa has presented demonstrations in which the rockets are flown to landing zones and offloaded for quick-strike targeting.
V Corps said its so-called European HIMARS Initiative will pull together field artillery experts from countries that have procured HIMARS or expressed interest in the system.
“While the summit and subsequent engagements are intended to take place across several central and Eastern European countries, it is up to the nation receiving the equipment to determine where they will conduct the fielding (of the system),” the command said in the statement.
The Army units that will be part of the HIMARS push include U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s 41st Field Artillery Brigade and 56th Artillery Command as well as elements from the 101st Airborne Division and 4th Infantry Division.
V Corps, which is based out of Fort Knox, Ky., and has a forward permanent headquarters in Poznan, Poland, was reestablished by the Army in 2020 to help USAREUR-AF manage an expanding mission in Europe.
A main task for the headquarters is overseeing the day-to-day operations of Army units operating up and down NATO’s eastern flank.
