Chapter 9: Indirect Fire Support

Modern battle is, above all, a firefight⎯in which indirect fire plays a decisive role in the effective engagement of the enemy. Uninterrupted and very close cooperation with the maneuver of supported combined arms units is the basis of the actions of indirect fire support units.

Fire support is the collective and coordinated use of target acquisition, indirect fire weapons, and aircraft, integrated with other lethal and nonlethal means, to engage enemy forces in support of a battle plan. The goal is to synchronize all available fire support systems to achieve the most effective results, thereby maximizing combat power. Effective fire support enables OPFOR ground forces to attack successfully and quickly to exploit weaknesses. Commanders try to accomplish their missions using a combination of maneuver, fires, and information warfare (INFOWAR).

The OPFOR stresses that fire support should combine air assets, surface-to-surface missiles (SSMs), and artillery into an integrated attack of enemy targets throughout the area of responsibility (AOR). The combined arms commander always seeks to increase the effectiveness of air and missile strikes and artillery fire to destroy enemy formations, weapon systems, or key components of an enemy’s combat system. (See Systems Warfare later in this chapter and in chapter 1.) This ensures continuous fire support for maneuver units throughout the AOR.

The OPFOR believes that fire support must be integrated with INFOWAR. INFOWAR provides a nonlethal alternative or supplement to attack by fire and maneuver. It is integrated into the overall concept of the battle, to confuse, deceive, delay, disrupt, disable, and disorganize the enemy at all levels. Fire support can play a role in the physical destruction element of INFOWAR.

The integration of air, artillery, SSM, and nonlethal assets into a unified fire support plan is a major task for the combined arms commander. Integration is a decisive element, fundamental to the success of any tactical action on the modern battlefield. The OPFOR does not consider itself to be an artillery-centric force. Rather, it views itself as using various forms of fire support to achieve success during offensive and defensive combat. In the offense, fire support is important to the success of any attack. It can destroy key enemy systems; disrupt, immobilize, or destroy enemy groupings; and repel counterattacks. Fire support is also the cornerstone of any defense, blunting attacks at the crucial point in the battle. It disrupts enemy preparations for the attack and repels forces.

Fire Support Principles

The principles of fire support are the framework for a thought process that ensures the most effective use of fire support assets. These principles apply at all levels of command, regardless of the specific fire support assets available:

Plan early and continuously.
Exploit all available reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance, and target acquisition (RISTA) assets.
Consider airspace management and the use of all fire support (lethal and nonlethal) means.
Use the lowest level of command capable of furnishing effective support.
Avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.
Use the most effective means to accomplish the mission.
Provide rapid and effective coordination.
Provide for flexibility of employment.
Provide for safeguarding and survivability of OPFOR fire support assets.
Attempt to achieve surprise when possible.
Deliver highly accurate and effective fire.
Integrate fire support with maneuver and INFOWAR at all levels.

Systems Warfare

The foundation of OPFOR planning is the systems warfare approach to combat. Thus, the OPFOR analyzes its own combat system and how it can use the combined effects of this “system of systems” to degrade or destroy the enemy’s combat system. In systems warfare, the subsystems or components of a combat system are targeted and destroyed individually. Once a favorable combat situation has developed, the targeted enemy subsystem is quickly destroyed in high-intensity battle, thus making the enemy’s overall combat system vulnerable to destruction or at least degrading its effectiveness. (See Systems Warfare in chapter 1 for further information.)

Within the systems warfare approach, the OPFOR employs a fire support concept centered on a phased cycle consisting of—

Finding a critical component of the enemy’s combat system and determining its location with RISTA assets.
Engaging it with precision fires, maneuver, or other means.
Recovering to support the fight against another part of the enemy force.

The primary reason for attacking an enemy with fires is to destroy one or more key components of the enemy’s combat system and/or to create favorable conditions for destroying other parts of his combat system.

Techniques to Exploit Enemy Vulnerabilities

The OPFOR seeks to avoid its enemy’s strengths and exploits his vulnerabilities. When the OPFOR is operating from a position of relative strategic weakness, it seeks to tactically outmaneuver, overwhelm, and outpace the enemy. It also seeks to deny the enemy any sanctuary on the battlefield, as well as in the local theater or in his strategic depth.

The OPFOR will use all fire support means (primarily aviation, SSMs, and long-range rocket strikes) to attack targets in the homeland of an opponent in the region. In a strategic campaign, the OPFOR may use various fire support assets in access-limitation operations and attack of the enemy’s lines of communications and rear. It will attack the most vulnerable parts of the enemy’s combat system. This includes strikes on the infrastructure and even civilian targets. Such OPFOR attacks will be coordinated with perception management efforts to convey the view that these terror tactics are no worse than enemy bombing campaigns.

The OPFOR will also leverage the effects of its available fire support means by integrating them into an integrated fires command (IFC) in organizations down to division or division tactical group (DTG) level. The IFC (described in detail later in this chapter) synchronizes and focuses the efforts of RISTA and fire to destroy key enemy formations or systems⎯or key components of an enemy’s combat system. Destroying such targets can not only shift the balance of combat power in the OPFOR’s favor, but also undermine enemy morale and resolve.

Target Damage Criteria

Target damage is the effect of fires on a given military target. It results in total, partial, or temporary loss of the target’s combat effectiveness. The OPFOR categories of target damage are annihilation, demolition, neutralization, and harassment. Of these categories, the first three fall under the general term destruction.

Annihilation

Annihilation fires render targets completely combat-ineffective and incapable of reconstruction or token resistance. For a point target such as an antitank guided missile launcher, the OPFOR must expend enough munitions to ensure a 70 to 90 percent probability of kill. For area targets such as platoon strong points or artillery firing positions, the OPFOR must fire enough rounds to destroy from 50 to 60 percent of the targets within the group. These fires result in the group ceasing to exist as a viable fighting force.

Demolition

The OPFOR uses the term demolition in reference to the destruction of buildings and engineer works (such as bridges, fortifications, or roads). Demolition requires enough munitions to make such material objects unfit for further use.

Neutralization

Fire for neutralization inflicts enough losses on a target to—

Cause it to temporarily lose its combat effectiveness, or
Restrict or prohibit its maneuver, or
Disrupt its command and control (C2) capability.

To achieve neutralization, the OPFOR must deliver enough munitions to destroy 30 percent of a group of unobserved targets. The expectation is that the target is severely damaged but could again become capable of coordinated resistance after the fire is lifted. The term neutralization applies only in an artillery context.

Harassment

The OPFOR uses a limited number of fire support systems and munitions within a prescribed time to deliver harassment fires. The goal of these fires is to put psychological pressure on enemy personnel in locations such as defensive positions, command posts (CPs), and logistics installations. Successful harassment fire inhibits maneuver, lowers morale, interrupts rest, and weakens enemy combat readiness.

Note. The OPFOR carefully calculates fire support requirements in terms of weapons and munitions needed to produce a required effect on enemy targets. If insufficient fire support or ammunition is available to achieve the necessary result, the OPFOR does not fire less and hope for the best. Rather, if necessary, it engages fewer targets, adjusting the tactical, or even operational, fire support plan.