U.S. Army tests HIMARS strike tactics for Pacific war

Soldiers from Boxer Battery, 1st Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, completed a multi-day High Mobility Artillery Rocket System rapid infiltration — known as HIRAIN — from Yakima Training Center, Washington, to Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, on April 17. The exercise was conducted in support of Operation Courage Lethality 26, a larger joint exercise led by I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord that ran from April 13 through April 20.

The primary objective of the HIRAIN was to validate the Edge Node concept — a command and control framework that allows units to direct operations using beyond line-of-sight communications across extended distances. Soldiers demonstrated the ability to rapidly marshal, combat configure, and project HIMARS firepower from a location outside an adversary’s detection and targeting cycle, then mass fires and displace before the enemy could fix their position. Key tasks during the operation included rapid deployment of HIMARS assets, demonstrating fire direction center control following the infiltration, and certifying 1-3 FAR on HIRAIN operations using reduced-range practice rockets.

“HIRAIN gives I Corps the ability to project long range precision fires at speed and distance, anywhere, at any time of our Commanders choosing,” said 1-3 FAR commander Lt. Col. Edward Guelfi. He noted that the capability allowed the unit to marshal, combat configure, and project combat power from outside an adversary’s detection and targeting cycle, mass effects rapidly, and displace before they can be fixed. Staff Sgt. Matthew McCoy of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade added that the HIRAIN mission provided a massive impact for I Corps, enabling the formation to be more lethal and provide long-range fires in a timely manner, proving they can maneuver on the ground and strike when necessary.

The HIMARS system is a wheeled rocket artillery launcher that can fire precision-guided munitions at targets up to 300 kilometers away, depending on the ammunition used. Its combination of mobility, range, and precision has made it one of the most discussed weapons systems of the past several years. Unlike traditional artillery, HIMARS can be loaded onto a C-130 transport aircraft, flown to a forward location, and put into action within minutes of landing — a quality that makes it uniquely suited to the kind of rapid, dispersed operations the Army is prioritizing for potential conflict in the Pacific. The HIRAIN concept takes that inherent mobility further, formalizing the tactics, techniques, and procedures for infiltrating HIMARS units into positions an adversary cannot easily predict or target in advance.

The Edge Node concept validated during this exercise addresses one of the more technically demanding challenges of distributed operations: maintaining command and control when units are spread across vast distances and cannot rely on traditional line-of-sight radio communications. In a Pacific conflict scenario, islands, ocean gaps, and geography conspire to make conventional communications architectures unreliable. Edge Node is designed to solve that problem, allowing a fire direction center to maintain connectivity with launchers operating far beyond normal communication range. Certifying that capability in a realistic training environment — not just in a lab or garrison setting — is precisely what exercises like Operation Courage Lethality 26 are designed to accomplish.

Operation Courage Lethality 26 itself was framed explicitly around validating the ability to plan, synchronize, and execute combined, joint, multi-domain effects. The 17th Field Artillery Brigade played a key role throughout the operation. I Corps, headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, serves as the designated Theater Army for the Indo-Pacific — meaning it is the ground force responsible for projecting and sustaining combat power across the region to deter aggression and, if necessary, fight alongside American allies and partners. Every training event I Corps conducts exists in that context, and the HIRAIN exercise is a direct expression of how the Army intends to generate long-range fires effects in a theater defined by vast distances and contested access.

Guelfi’s comment that distance remains “one of our largest problems” in the Indo-Pacific is not rhetorical. The geographic realities of a potential Pacific conflict place enormous demands on any force trying to project firepower at range while remaining survivable. HIRAIN is part of the Army’s evolving answer to that problem — one that prioritizes speed, dispersion, and unpredictability over the fixed, concentrated fire bases that characterized ground combat in previous generations.

The certification of 1-3 FAR on HIRAIN operations marks a concrete milestone in building that capability at the unit level, turning a concept into a validated, executable mission set that I Corps can now rely on as a genuine operational option.