Surveillance and target acquisition explained

Surveillance and target acquisition (STA) is a military role assigned to units and/or their equipment. It involves watching an area to see what changes (surveillance) and then the acquisition of targets based on that information.

Artillery STA

The role of STA artillery is to locate, track, assess and where appropriate cue the attack of hostile artillery, mortars, units and formation.

It provides commanders with surveillance and targeting information across the battle space and is always linked by a robust command-and-control (C2) system to offensive support (OS) systems.

Units

British Army

Regular army

• 4/73 (Sphinx) Special Observation Post Battery RA
• 5th Regiment Royal Artillery

Army Reserve

• • Honourable Artillery Company 204 (Tyneside Scottish) Battery Royal Artillery
• 269 (West Riding) Battery Royal Artillery

French Army

• 61e régiment d'artillerie

German Army

• Artillerieaufklärungsbataillon 131, Mühlhausen

Australian Army

• 20th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery

Italian Army

01.09.2004 - today

• Com.F.O.Ter. Comando delle Forze Operative Terrestri (Verona)
  • Co.T.I.E. Comando Trasmissioni ed Informazioni dell'Esercito (Anzio - Caserma “Santa Barbara”)
    • Brg.R.I.S.T.A.-I.E.W. Brigata Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition – Intelligence and Electronic Warfare (Anzio - Caserma “Santa Barbara”)
      • 41° Rgt.A.Ter.Sor.A.O. Reggimento Artiglieria Terrestre Sorveglianza ed Aquisizione Obiettivi (Casarsa della Delizia - Caserma “Trieste”)
        • 2° Gr.Sor.A.O. Gruppo Sorveglianza ed Aquisizione Obiettivi (Sora - Caserma “Simone Simoni”)
          • B.A.T. Batteria Aerei Teleguidati
• Com.F.O.Ter. Comando delle Forze Operative Terrestri (Verona)
  • Com.F.O.S.E. Comando delle Forze Speciali dell'Esercito
    • • 185° Reggimento Paracadutisti Ricognizione Acquisizione Obiettivi "Folgore"

United States Marine Corps

• Target Acquisition Platoon (TAP)

Equipment

• Counter-battery radar^[1] (CoBRa)
• Mobile Artillery Monitoring Battlefield Asset (MAMBA)
• Advanced Sound-ranging Programme (ASP)
• Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

See also

• C4ISTAR
• RSTA (U.S. Army)
• CARVER matrix

Notes and References

1. Book: 2002 . ARMY FM 3-09.12 (FM 6-121) MCRP 3-16.1A Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for FIELD ARTILLERY TARGET ACQUISITION . . 1 July 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141226051243/http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/fm3_09x12.pdf . 26 December 2014 . dead .