Fire support is a military term used to describe weapons fire used to support friendly forces by engaging, suppressing, or destroying enemy forces, facilities, or materiel in combat. It is often provided through indirect fire, though the term may also be used for some forms of supporting direct fire.
Fire support is used to support and supplement military units that may lack the capabilities or firepower offered by fire support. For example, an infantry unit needing heavy explosives to bombard an enemy emplacement, or a large smoke screen to cover their advance, and lacking the ability to do so themselves (e.g. insufficient effectiveness using grenades), may call for fire support from a capable nearby mortar unit.
Fire support can reduce friendly casualties whilst devastating enemy capabilities and morale. Effective use of fire support—as seen during the 2018 Battle of Khasham of the Syrian Civil War, where an outnumbered force used various forms of fire support to their advantage, avoiding serious casualties—may help swing a battle in one's favor.
Historyedit
Varying forms of fire support have existed since the advent of early cannons and rockets, which were used to bombard enemy positions and fortifications to support infantry. Warships have long provided fire support using their cannons. The use of fire support in its current form developed during World War I and World War II, when combined arms and advances in technology and tactics made fire support increasingly effective.
fire, support, military, term, used, describe, weapons, fire, used, support, friendly, forces, engaging, suppressing, destroying, enemy, forces, facilities, materiel, combat, often, provided, through, indirect, fire, though, term, also, used, some, forms, supp. Fire support is a military term used to describe weapons fire used to support friendly forces by engaging suppressing or destroying enemy forces facilities or materiel in combat It is often provided through indirect fire though the term may also be used for some forms of supporting direct fire An M198 howitzer firing a 155 mm caliber shell to provide artillery fire support The United States Department of Defense defines fire support as fires that directly support land maritime amphibious and special operations forces to engage enemy forces combat formations and facilities in pursuit of tactical and operational objectives 1 Contents 1 Overview 2 History 3 Gallery 4 See also 5 ReferencesOverview edit nbsp U S Marines watching the aftermath of an airstrike during Operation Prairie II of the Vietnam War Fire support generally consists of fire from heavy or crew served weaponry with high firepower including strikes and barrages from artillery mortars rocket artillery and missiles naval gunfire support from naval artillery airstrikes strafes and close air support from military aircraft and drone strikes from unmanned combat aerial vehicles among various other forms Fire support is typically ordered and directed by an observer e g artillery observer forward air controller etc on the front line and provided by a weapon crew or operator in the rear usually from a fortification vehicle or facility such as a fire support base Fire support is used to support and supplement military units that may lack the capabilities or firepower offered by fire support For example an infantry unit needing heavy explosives to bombard an enemy emplacement or a large smoke screen to cover their advance and lacking the ability to do so themselves e g insufficient effectiveness using grenades may call for fire support from a capable nearby mortar unit Fire support can reduce friendly casualties whilst devastating enemy capabilities and morale Effective use of fire support as seen during the 2018 Battle of Khasham of the Syrian Civil War where an outnumbered force used various forms of fire support to their advantage avoiding serious casualties may help swing a battle in one s favor History editVarying forms of fire support have existed since the advent of early cannons and rockets which were used to bombard enemy positions and fortifications to support infantry Warships have long provided fire support using their cannons The use of fire support in its current form developed during World War I and World War II when combined arms and advances in technology and tactics made fire support increasingly effective Gallery edit nbsp U S Marines firing a 120 mm shell from a 2R2M mortar nbsp The crew of a Philippine Army ATMOS 2000 self propelled artillery firing a 155 mm shell nbsp A Mitsubishi L200 technical used as a multiple rocket launcher by the Ukrainian Ground Forces nbsp A UH 60 Black Hawk providing close air support using its side mounted M134 Minigun turrets nbsp A UH 1Y Venom providing close air support during an urban warfare training exercise nbsp High explosive munitions fired by the USS Winston S Churchill being used against target practice dummy tanksSee also editFire support base Fire support teamReferences edit fire support www dtic mil Archived from the original on September 21 2012 Retrieved 2017 10 01 nbsp This article relating to artillery is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Fire support amp oldid 1133293245, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
