French artillery regiment reorganizes guns to survive drone threats

BESANÇON, France — The French Army’s 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. Rémy 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 Besançon in eastern France earlier this month.

“As counter-intuitive as it may seem, splitting sections into pairs increases the availability of fires and therefore their responsiveness,” Jaillet told Defense News in a followup comment via email. “Smaller, more dispersed units also improve their survivability and resilience in a degraded environment with a strong counter-battery threat.”

The 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’t 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. Rémy Jaillet (r), commander of the French Army’s 68th African Artillery Regiment, speaks to a fellow officer during the innovation day of the 7th Armored Brigade in Besançon, 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’s model for a combat-ready brigade includes an artillery regiment equipped with 16 Caesar self-propelled howitzers and eight MEPAC mortars.

The regiment’s 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 “recreate a dynamic artillery maneuver” 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, “with all the limitations that entails,” Jaillet said.

The colonel said the new structure “in a way” recreates the reconnaissance sections that existed previously in French artillery formations, but augmented with new capabilities, particularly in the field of deception.

‘Opacity bubbles’ and metallic cages

In the regiment’s deployment zone, Caesar guns will wait before fire missions in what Jaillet called “opacity bubbles,” 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 “we shouldn’t turn into a general rule.”

“The essence of the Caesar is to provide survivability through mobility,” Jaillet said.

While the static frontline and the transparency of the battlefield in Ukraine have translated into “very defensive” tactics, with prepared positions that require heavy engineering assets and lengthy groundwork, Jaillet said those are “not the be-all and end-all. We need to be able to adopt a more dynamic approach.”

The biggest change for artillery due to the widespread use of drones has been in target acquisition, with “the real shock, the real turning point” 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’s liaison, observation and coordination detachments is evolving, from fairly self-contained, “essentially a vehicle with a team inside,” to teams combining an armored vehicle capability with ground, radar and drone capabilities, Jaillet said.

The colonel said he’s satisfied with the regiment’s equipment, including the Caesar howitzer and the MEPAC mortar that’s entering service, as well as the Thales-produced Murin ground-surveillance radar and Delair’s DT46 reconnaissance drone.

“For ground-to-ground artillery and target acquisition, this is high-quality equipment that has proven itself in operations,” Jaillet said. “There’s always room for technological improvement. The battlefield is expanding, so we need to increase range and improve responsiveness.”

Rudy 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.

法国贝桑松——法国陆军第68非洲炮兵团正在将其炮兵连重组为更小的单位，并创建一个专门的部门来准备射击阵地和设置诱饵，此举旨在提高在现代战场上的生存能力，因为无人机和反炮兵火力构成了持续的威胁。

据指挥该炮兵部队的雷米·雅耶上校称，第 68 皇家炮兵团正在将其 155 毫米凯撒榴弹炮连从两个四炮连重新调整为三个双炮连，同时暂时保持其车载榴弹炮部队的总体规模不变。

贾耶特在本月初于法国东部贝桑松的第七装甲旅总部举办的创新日活动间隙表示，该团依靠阿特拉斯火控系统来协调多个分队，并保持集中火力的能力，尽管火炮被分散部署。

“虽然这看起来可能与直觉相悖，但将小队分成两两一组可以增加火力支援的可用性，从而提高反应速度，”贾莱特在随后通过电子邮件回复《防务新闻》时表示。“规模更小、分布更分散的小队也能提高在环境恶劣且面临强大反炮兵威胁时的生存能力和韧性。”

北约各国军队正在研究乌克兰的经验教训，此举正值此时。在乌克兰，持续不断的无人机侦察使得火力阵地极易受到反炮兵火力攻击。据英国皇家联合军种研究所分析，乌克兰军队的应对措施包括分散火炮、缩短射击任务、隐蔽阵地以及将弹药与射击单位分开存放。

贾莱特表示，此次炮兵部队重组由第68皇家炮兵团牵头，目前不应被视为陆军的标准编制。他指出，重组后，每个炮兵连的火炮数量减少，但炮兵连的数量却增加了。

2026年9月9日，在法国贝桑松举行的第7装甲旅创新日活动上，法国陆军第68非洲炮兵团指挥官雷米·雅耶上校（右）正在与一名军官交谈。（鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格/工作人员摄）

第68皇家炮兵团是法国六个装备凯撒自行榴弹炮的炮兵团之一，该炮兵团由KNDS公司制造。法国陆军的作战旅级编制包括一个炮兵团，该团装备16门凯撒自行榴弹炮和8门MEPAC迫击炮。

据 Jaillet 称，该团新成立的炮兵支援分队负责确定所有射击位置、设置诱饵和预先部署弹药，这与以往每个炮兵分队都拥有自己的小型侦察分队的做法有所不同。

贾莱特表示，其理念是“重现动态炮兵机动”，将与生存能力、机动性和协同部署相关的所有功能集中到一个班长指挥下，而不是像以前那样，由两个各自独立准备行动和防护的射击班组成，“从而避免所有由此带来的限制”。

这位上校表示，新的组织结构“在某种程度上”重现了法国炮兵部队中先前存在的侦察部门，但增强了新的能力，尤其是在欺骗领域。

“不透明气泡”和金属笼

在团的部署区域内，凯撒自行榴弹炮会在贾耶特所说的“隐蔽气泡”中等待开火，这些气泡隐蔽性极强，辐射量也尽可能低，以避免被发现。支援分队将设置弹药补给点、诱饵，并为射击阵地配备防护金属笼，以便自行榴弹炮可以倒车进入。

今年早些时候，第68皇家澳大利亚炮兵团在法国南部坎茹尔军营测试了新的组织模式，并在4月底结束的法国大规模“猎户座2026”演习中再次进行了测试。上校表示，这些经验使该团能够对组织结构和组成部分（例如防护笼和诱饵）进行微调。

贾莱特表示，第一座凯撒炮台将于明年永久过渡到新结构，其余炮台也将随后进行过渡。

今年 8 月，法国陆军在罗马尼亚举行的无人机观察炮兵射击比赛中，从掩体中发射了凯撒榴弹炮。贾耶称这是一个特殊案例，“我们不应该将其变成普遍规则”。

“凯撒战机的精髓在于通过机动性来提高生存能力，”贾莱特说。

尽管乌克兰战场上静态的前线和透明的态势导致了“非常保守”的战术，需要大量工程设备和漫长的准备工作才能构筑阵地，但贾莱特表示，这些“并非全部。我们需要采取更加灵活的方式。”

据该团指挥官称，无人机的广泛使用给炮兵带来了最大的变化，尤其是在目标获取方面，“真正的冲击，真正的转折点”发生在乌克兰战争之前，即 2020 年纳戈尔诺-卡拉巴赫冲突期间。

这位上校表示，阿塞拜疆在冲突期间部署了一体化目标获取和打击系统，无人机通过快速通信提供目标信息，从而可以呼叫炮兵进行打击。贾耶特将其比作现代版的飞机侦察目标并调整炮火，无人机创造了一种新的协同效应，并加快了从传感器到射击者的整个流程。

第 68 皇家澳大利亚炮兵团使用的 Atlas 火控系统可以与 SitaWare 指挥控制系统等旅级系统互操作，但 Jaillet 表示，还需要更多能力才能将战场上的传感器和效应器连接起来。

贾莱特表示，该团的联络、观察和协调分队的结构正在发生变化，从相当独立的“基本上就是一辆车里有一个小组”发展成为将装甲车能力与地面、雷达和无人机能力相结合的小组。

上校表示，他对该团的装备感到满意，包括凯撒榴弹炮和即将服役的MEPAC迫击炮，以及泰雷兹公司生产的穆林地面监视雷达和德莱尔公司的DT46侦察无人机。

“对于地对地火炮和目标获取而言，这是一款经过实战检验的高质量装备，”贾莱特说。“技术改进的空间始终存在。战场不断扩大，因此我们需要提升射程和反应速度。”

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。