Jinri Common Fire Direction System

The Jinri Common Fire Direction System is an integrated software system developed by the Menghean Army to create a common architecture for requesting and correcting indirect fire from higher-level units. It allows a single fire direction vehicle or unmanned aerial vehicle to request fire from a wide variety of supporting systems, replacing the earlier practice of including a forward observer vehicle in each artillery or rocket battery. It is sometimes informally referred to as "Land Suijin" or "Hwasin" (fire god) for its conceptual resemblance to the Dayashinese Suijin Combat System, though neither name is an official Menghean designation.

The Jinri CFDS was first introduced some time in the early 2010s, and it remained a closely guarded state secret until its public acknowledgement in 2017. It was first tested operationally during the Innominadan Crisis. As of 2021, only about half of the Menghean Army's front-line divisions are equipped with a fully operational Jinri CFDS, with the remaining active divisions and all reserve divisions using organic battery-level fire direction vehicles.

Development

Prior to the introduction of the Jinri CFDS, the Menghean Army mainly conducted artillery fire control through dedicated forward observer and fire correction vehicles. These vehicles would be part of an artillery system's family of vehicles: for example, the P150G1JG forward observer is part of the P150G1 artillery system, which includes the P150G1P Mogryŏn-po. Organizationally, fire control vehicles like the P150G1JG were crewed by part of the battery headquarters unit and could only direct fire from other weapons in their particular system. In order to direct fire efficiently, an artillery unit would be attached to a lower-level front-line unit in advance, and its fire correction vehicle would be sent to accompany that unit under the direction of its commander.

This approach marked a major improvement over the earlier practice of relying entirely on front-line unit headquarters to call coordinates for fire support, but it also came with a number of limitations. In particular, artillery units had to be attached to a particular front-line unit in advance. This made it difficult to rapidly shift supporting fire from one unit to another. Some later system improvements prior to Jinri's introduction mollified this issue by allowing different fire direction vehicles in a battalion to link with other batteries, but even after these changes a fire direction vehicle could only direct fire from other weapons in its parent battalion, and its networking software did not support other weapon systems.

Following the breakdown of relations with Maverica, doctrinal planners in the Menghean Army began taking this approach's constraints more seriously. Under Menghean Fluid Battle Doctrine, it was important for battalion-level commanders and above to quickly concentrate supporting fire behind the unit performing a breakthrough; but on a dynamic battlefield, it may not be possible to identify weak points in the enemy line before making contact with the enemy. Likewise, in order to defend against Maverican breakthrough efforts, a Menghean commander would need to be able to rapidly concentrate supporting fire at a particular point, even as the enemy deliberately masks the planned breakthrough point before making contact. These challenges were seen to demand a much more fluid and dynamic approach to fire support, both in the defense and in the offense.

The Jinri CFDS was developed specifically to solve this problem. In its earliest iteration, it consisted of a universal fire direction vehicle which could direct fire from regimental gun artillery, divisional gun artillery, and divisional rocket artillery, with one platoon of three such vehicles in each battalion. Seeing the broader potential of such a system, designers suggested adding compatibility with other weapon systems, particularly non-line-of-sight ATGMs like the YDJ-48 Salmusa. They also integrated it with the Menghean Army's airstrike direction system, allowing the same forward observer vehicles to designate targets for guided air-to-ground munitions and transmit coordinates for unguided munitions strikes. Another evolution to the developing Jinri CFDS came from the proliferation of lightweight UAVs: rather than relying on ground vehicles alone, as early concepts had anticipated, system designers worked to integrate battalion-level UAVs into the new software network so that they could conduct the same fire direction missions.

During its development and early introduction to service, the new common fire direction system was a classified state secret. The program was only discussed under the codename jinri, meaning "truth." Early foreign intelligence reports considered it to be synonymous with the Menghean Army's new battlefield management system, which received more public attention in Menghean state media. The introduction of the Jinri CFDS appears to have taken place at some point in the early 2010s; new fire direction vehicles were delivered to the 5th Kimsŏng Tank Division in 2012, but it is unclear whether the software was fully online by that point. The Jinri CFDS was tested operationally during the Innominadan Crisis, though this was only confirmed in 2017, when the Menghean Ministry of National Defense officially acknowledged the existence of the system.

Description

The Jinri CFDS is a common software architecture which links fire direction platforms in front-line units to fire delivery platforms in the rear area. Its main improvement over previous Menghean fire direction systems is its shared structure, which allows a forward fire direction platform to request fire from different batteries and battalions as needed. This includes compatibility with many different indirect fire systems, including breech-loading mortars, gun artillery, rocket artillery, and NLOS anti-tank missiles, as well as airstrikes using guided and unguided munitions.

More specifically, a fire direction platform with the Jinri CFDS is able to:

• Independently detect enemy fixed and moving targets with high-quality electro-optical equipment;
• Generate precise CSNS coordinates for a target point by combining data from the platform's own CSNS coordinates, the bearing to the target, and the range to the target, and transmit those coordinates to a firing platform;
• Generate approximate grid square coordinates for a target point via manual map-reading by an operator onboard the vehicle, and transmit those coordinates to a firing platform;
• Illuminate a fixed or moving target with a laser designator to provide terminal guidance for semi-active laser homing munitions; and
• Provide live fire correction feedback to the fire platform, either via video feed or via voice instructions.

Certain land vehicles with the Jinri CFDS also retain the ability to mark a target with colored flares to direct airstrikes in a jamming-intensive environment.

Although the Jinri CFDS was originally developed with manned land vehicles in mind, it soon expanded to include UAVs. Most new medium-weight UAVs used by the Menghean Army are able to perform all of the tasks in the list above, either through onboard equipment or with the help of an operator on the ground. There are also unconfirmed reports that newer versions of the Maenun targeting pod have a limited fire direction capability, allowing fixed-wing aircraft to request artillery or missile fire against a given set of coordinates if no other platforms are available.

Organizationally, the 4th Generation Organization Template for Menghean Army divisions includes a single Jinri-compatible fire direction vehicle in each front-line company, three or more Jinri-compatible medium UAVs in each front-line battalion, and additional Jinri-compatible UAVs in each front-line regiment and division. Artillery and rocket brigades may have their own Jinri-compatible UAVs, and UAVs under the command of the corps commander also have Jinri-compatible targeting equipment.

Compatible systems

The following systems are known to be compatible with the Jinri CFDS. In some cases Jinri compatibility was included from the outset, while in other cases it was only added in subsequent updates and is still limited.

Full Jinri integration

• H15G1B32 Ho-u

Partial Jinri integration

• P150G2 (added datalink to battery command vehicle)
• SB-80 Type 2 (Jinri transmits coordinates and fire correction to section leader's tablet)

Exceptions

While most new Menghean artillery and rocket systems are designed with full Jinri integration, a number of systems are not.

Naval gun fire support remains entirely outside the Jinri network. Jinri was originally developed by the Menghean Army, and while it was eventually rolled out to the Menghean Marine Infantry, the Menghean Navy's warships and aircraft use a different set of radio frequencies and a different type of target-sharing software. As a result, Menghean Marine Infantry units still rely on dedicated naval gun fire direction teams which are unable to direct fire from other systems. In the late 2010s, there were occasional reports that the Marine Infantry were working on an integrated fire direction system, but as of 2021 no such system is in service.

Most legacy systems also have only partial Jinri compatibility. In some cases, Jinri integration was added during later updates to existing vehicles, but in a more limited fashion. The P150G2P Songsu-po, for example, can receive target coordinates and fire correction data from a Jinri-equipped fire direction vehicle, but only when the data are routed through the battery command post.