A System-Based Model for Assessing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Artillery Training Operations: Bridging Climate Security and Military Sustainability

Military activities remain insufficiently represented in greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and debates on climate security. This article develops a system-based model for assessing direct operational GHG emissions from artillery training. The model adapts established inventory logic to the structure of an artillery battery and separates emissions from mobility, stationary operation, support and logistics, and a supplementary firing-process module. It is demonstrated using a single hypothetical standardized training scenario for a battery of self-propelled howitzers, based on assumed and estimated parameters rather than field measurements. Under the stated assumptions, the training day generated an estimated 4353.74 kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Operational fuel combustion accounted for 93.94% of the total, and the supplementary firing-process proxy accounted for 6.06%; stationary engine operation of the howitzers in firing positions was the dominant source (73.87%). Within the defined gate-to-activity boundary, the scenario’s direct operational carbon footprint was therefore driven primarily by energy demand rather than projectile discharge. The article’s contribution is an artillery-specific, transparent decomposition of established GHG accounting principles, not a new emission-factor method. The model provides a transferable structure for tactical-level assessment, while the numerical results are scenario-specific and require validation against measured data and additional operational scenarios.