This paper was presented at an Ordinary Meeting of the Institute, held at the Royal Entomological Society, London, on Wednesday 20 April 1988.

The current method of artillery survey is reviewed and its limitations examined in the light of both the system error budget and the envisaged battlefield threat. The concept of the Automatic Gun Laying System (AGLS) is introduced as a means of enhancing the effectiveness and survivability of the self-propelled gun element through the application of modern inertial navigation (IN) technology. As a complement to this, the use of IN technology to provide a vehicle-mounted target observation capability is also presented. The paper describes a unified treatment of the artillery system, leading to the selection of the respective IN solutions, and concludes that a standard module is both appropriate and optimal. Environmental factors are discussed, together with the alternative sensors and systems considered. The paper concludes with brief comments on the status of inertial navigation within the military land area.