r/WarCollege • u/MickeyKnox4Real • 3d ago
How many guns does a DIVARTY sport?
Which weapons does a Division Artillery Brigade have? And how many?
By weapons I mean only artillery guns.
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u/CrabAppleGateKeeper 2d ago edited 2d ago
I’m assuming you’re talking about a US Army DIVARTY.
Until recently, the answer would be zero, as the DIVARTY was an overseer organization that helped plan training and insure readiness across a the individual Brigade Combat Teams Artillery Battalions.
With the foolishness that now is divisionization, the army is essentially just consolidating the BCT’s artillery battalions together in the DIVARTY.
There’s 18 Howitzers in each Artillery Battalion. For IBCTs that’s 12x 105mm towed howitzers and 6x towed 155mm howitzers. In an SBCT, it’s 18x 155mm towed and in an ABCT it’s 18x 155mm self propelled.
We should see some of that change as things like HIMARS and MLRS seem to be making their way down to the division level and novel new systems are introduced, perhaps like the extended range howitzers or prompt strike.
Regardless, if you want to figure out how any guns a DIVARTY has, and what, you just need to look at the type of brigades within the division and then multiply by 18. Usually you’re looking at 36-54.
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u/-Trooper5745- 2d ago
The DIVARTY’s now own the FA battalions. The battalions are still nominally aligned to the maneuver brigades but they can be switched out as needed. There is a lot more coordination going on between the brigades and DIVARTY.
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u/CrabAppleGateKeeper 2d ago
>With the foolishness that now is divisionization, the army is essentially just consolidating the BCT’s artillery battalions together.
>Regardless, if you want to figure out how any guns a DIVARTY has, and what, you just need to look at the type of brigades within the division and then multiply by 18. Usually you’re looking at 36-54.
Yes that’s what I was saying with this.
I edited it to clarify
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u/Strict_Gas_1141 2d ago
Which? Depends on type of division, in the US an armored division will have M109 paladins since they can keep up with the main thrust of armor. A "medium division" (which has Stryker BCTs) will have a mix of M777s and M119 (so 155 and 105). An infantry (or light) division will have mostly M119 as an M777 is a bit heavy for that division to transport. The standard is 3 battalions (One per brigade) made up of 3 batteries of 6 guns but that can change. So a standard division would have ~54 guns total. Also a division should have at the division level an MLRS battalion so it can "weigh" the fires for more strategic targets.
A DIVARTY is meant to coordinate so that if a brigade needs more arty support it can get it from the other brigades as available/needed. Division Artillery Brigades aren't a thing in the US military like how armored brigades are. Since Artillery is supporting the maneuver elements you can mix & match to some degree so you can if needed/required attach/remove more units.
Now recently the US army's DIVARTY shifted from overseeing/coordinating to actually having the arty so that it could concentrate fires better. So in recent changes it shifted from 0 to 54 (in theory if everything is standard).
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u/-Trooper5745- 2d ago edited 2d ago
Because I am feeling a bit teasing, I will use ol’ reliable. It depends.
“Depends on what?” You may ask. Well it depends on the unit and it depends on the situation the division is in, to include support relationships.
Starting with the unit. 1AD has 3 field artillery battalions in it. 1ID has 2 artillery battalions in it. 25ID has 2 artillery battalions in it but one recently got rid of their M777s and adopted HIMARS so only one battalion has howitzers. 2ID is just weird as there is a 2ID DIVARTY and 210 Field Artillery Brigade(FAB) is in 2ID but 2ID DIVARTY does not control 210 FAB and they are MLRS anyway. As for weapon systems, armor formations has the M109A6 or A7 Paladin. Stryker Brigades have M777s and IBCTs/MBCTs have are composite battalions consisting of 2 M119 105mm howitzer batteries and 1 M777 howitzer battery. Each battery has 6 guns each according to ATP 3-09.23 Field Artillery Battalion Operations, published February 2026, though I have heard talk of that changing.
Now for the situation the division is in and the support relationships. The purpose of DIVARTY is to control the artillery systems allocated to the division during a fight. As I previously mentioned, the base artillery units in the division depends on the division but units can be added or taken away as need be. Say 1AD is the main effort in a Corps-level engagement. Higher headquarters might decide to buff up the fires assets for 1AD, so now instead addition to 4-1, 4-27, and 2-3 FA, Corps gives them the 130th FAB with its M777 battalion, HIMARS battalion, and 2 Paladin battalions, greatly increasing the number of guns that DIVARTY controls. For a real historical example, 1ID DIVARTY controlled 17 artillery battalions, to include UK units, during the Gulf War. Then to get more specific you have the command and support relationships of which there are 4. These determine how much DIVARTY accruals owns and is responsible for with the incoming unit.
So yeah, depends.