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.
History
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.
Definition
Fire support is defined as "assistance to infantry and armored units by artillery fire, naval gunfire, and airplane strafing and bombing."[2]
Early cannons (1300-1599)
Early versions of artillery included the Roman ballista, essentially a large, mounted version of a crossbow that fired a single arrow. The first documented use of bombards, (large mortars) in Europe as we know them today was at the siege of Algeciras in 1343. By the 1470s, casting and metal work dramatically improved, giving way to the modern cannon. In the early 15th century, cast iron balls were invented for cannons. These balls, combined with gunpowder, were commonly used during sieges. By around 1550, the French had begun categorizing their guns by caliber, leading to a more organized formation of artillery.
Renaissance and revolutionary cannons (1600-1790)
Circa 1650, the French garrison gun was invented. The garrison gun was usually mounted and tied down to reduce recoil, and could be mounted in very small spaces. By the mid-18th century artillery pieces were making an appearance in North America, most notably during the French and Indian War. Artillery was later used by the Americans in their war for independence. The Continental Army used cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga to win the Battle of Yorktown, the last major battle of the American Revolution.
Fire support during World War I and World War II (1914-1945)
During the first World War, fire support was mostly used preemptively before an infantry attack. Artillery was often used to destroy enemy forces and positions, as well as obstacles in and near trenches. During this time, we also see the introduction of chemical fire support, using chemical compounds inside of shells in addition to conventional armaments. During the second World War, there was a joint usage of fire support by field artillery, naval fire support and air support. Field artillery was mainly in the western and eastern theaters, while naval fire support was used during the pacific theater, however a large number of ships were used to give fire support on D-Day. During World War II there was a large use of aerial fire support that included major improvements in technology in all theaters and campaigns of the second world war.
Fire support in Vietnam (1955–1974)
During the Vietnam War, fire support was used to flush out Viet Cong positions. Most notably, napalm was used to destroy forests and jungles, resulting in less cover for the enemy.
Fire support in recent warfare (since 1975)
During Operation Desert Storm the United States used fire support, particularly onboard naval craft to bombard positions. During this operation, we also see the introduction of drones into combat, as a way to provide fire support from the air without a manned aircraft. During Operation Desert storm, Artillery was used to achieve a decisive victory by coalition forces. More recently Artillery has been used in the Russo-Ukrainian war to bombard troops and key positions. When the war first broke out, the United States sent artillery aid including shells, cannons and Patriot missile defense systems to aid Ukraine. As of 2023, Fire support by tanks and artillery have been used by the Israeli Defense Force to bombard key positions in the war against Hamas.
Artillery are ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility generally providing the largest share of an army's total firepower.
A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during the late 19th century. Cannons vary in gauge, effective range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees, depending on their intended use on the battlefield. A cannon is a type of heavy artillery weapon.
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consist of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. All six armed services are among the eight uniformed services of the United States, along with the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps.
Anti-aircraft warfare is the counter to aerial warfareand it includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action". It includes surface based, subsurface, and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements, and passive measures. It may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries, the main effort has tended to be homeland defence. Missile defence is an extension of air defence, as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight.
A broadside is the side of a ship, or more specifically the battery of cannon on one side of a warship or their coordinated fire in naval warfare, or a measurement of a warship's maximum simultaneous firepower which can be delivered upon a single target. From the 16th century until the early decades of the steamship, vessels had rows of guns set in each side of the hull. Firing all guns on one side of the ship became known as a "broadside". The cannon of 18th-century men of war were accurate only at short range, and their penetrating power mediocre, which meant that the thick hulls of wooden ships could only be pierced at short ranges. These wooden ships sailed closer and closer towards each other until cannon fire would be effective. Each tried to be the first to fire a broadside, often giving one party a decisive headstart in the battle when it crippled the other ship.
Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. It became archetypically associated with World War I (1914–1918), when the Race to the Sea rapidly expanded trench use on the Western Front starting in September 1914.
USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is an Iowa-class battleship built for the United States Navy (USN) in the 1940s and is currently a museum ship. Completed in 1944, the ship was assigned to the Pacific Theater during World War II, where she participated in the Philippines campaign and the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The battleship shelled the Japanese home islands shortly before the end of the war in September 1945. During the Korean War, Wisconsin shelled North Korean targets in support of United Nations and South Korean ground operations, after which she was decommissioned. She was reactivated in 1986; after a modernization program, she participated in Operation Desert Storm in January – February 1991.
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems. The term is also used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships.
Naval gunfire support (NGFS), also known as naval surface fire support (NSFS), or shore bombardment, is the use of naval artillery to provide fire support for amphibious assault and other troops operating within their range. NGFS is one of several disciplines encompassed by the term naval fires. Modern naval gunfire support is one of the three main components of amphibious warfare assault operations support, along with aircraft and ship-launched land-attack missiles. Shipborne guns have been used against shore defences since medieval naval warfare.
A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounted forward near the bow and elevated to a high angle, and projecting their fire in a ballistic arc. Explosive shells or carcasses were employed rather than solid shot. Bomb vessels were specialized ships designed for bombarding fixed positions on land. In the 20th century, this naval gunfire support role was carried out by the most similar purpose-built World War I- and II-era monitors, but also by other warships now firing long-range explosive shells.
The formal definition of large-calibre artillery used by the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA) is "guns, howitzers, artillery pieces, combining the characteristics of a gun, howitzer, mortar, or rocket, capable of engaging surface targets by delivering primarily indirect fire, with a calibre of 76.2 mm (3.00 in) and above". This definition, shared by the Arms Trade Treaty and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, is updated from an earlier definition in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/36L, which set a threshold of 100 mm (3.9 in). Several grammatical changes were made to that latter in 1992 and the threshold was lowered in 2003 to yield the current definition, as endorsed by UN General Assembly Resolution 58/54.
An artillery observer, artillery spotter, or forward observer (FO) is a soldier responsible for directing artillery and mortar fire support onto a target. An artillery observer usually accompanies a tank or infantry unit. Spotters ensure that indirect fire hits targets which those at a fire support base cannot see.
A ranged weapon is any weapon that can engage targets beyond hand-to-hand distance, i.e. at distances greater than the physical reach of the user holding the weapon itself. The act of using such a weapon is also known as shooting. It is sometimes also called projectile weapon or missile weapon because it typically works by launching solid projectiles ("missiles"), though technically a fluid-projector and a directed-energy weapon are also ranged weapons. In contrast, a weapon intended to be used in hand-to-hand combat is called a melee weapon.
A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a human gunner firing a weapon, but attempts to do so faster and more accurately.
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare and then subsequently used for more specialized roles in surface warfare such as naval gunfire support (NGFS) and anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) engagements. The term generally refers to powder-launched projectile-firing weapons and excludes self-propelled projectiles such as torpedoes, rockets, and missiles and those simply dropped overboard such as depth charges and naval mines.
The history of cannons spans several hundred years from the 12th century to modern times. The cannon first appeared in China sometime during the 12th and 13th centuries. It was most likely developed in parallel or as an evolution of an earlier gunpowder weapon called the fire lance. The result was a projectile weapon in the shape of a cylinder that fired projectiles using the explosive pressure of gunpowder. Cannons were used for warfare by the late 13th century in the Yuan dynasty and spread throughout Eurasia in the 14th century. During the Middle Ages, large and small cannons were developed for siege and field battles. The cannon replaced prior siege weapons such as the trebuchet. After the Middle Ages, most large cannons were abandoned in favor of greater numbers of lighter, more maneuverable field artillery. New defensive fortifications such as bastions and star forts were designed specifically to better withstand artillery sieges. Cannons transformed naval warfare with its deadly firepower, allowing vessels to destroy each other from long range. As rifling became more commonplace, the accuracy of the cannon was significantly improved, and they became deadlier than ever, especially to infantry. In World War I, a considerable majority of all deaths were caused by cannons; they were also used widely in World War II. Most modern cannons are similar to those used in the Second World War, including autocannons—with the exception of naval guns, which are now significantly smaller in caliber.
The artillery of World War I, improved over that used in previous wars, influenced the tactics, operations, and strategies that were used by the belligerents. This led to trench warfare and encouraged efforts to break the resulting stalemate at the front. World War I raised artillery to a new level of importance on the battlefield.
Forward observers in the U.S. military are artillery observers who carry the Military Occupational Specialty designator of 13F in the United States Army and 0861 in the United States Marine Corps. They are officially called "joint fire support specialists" in the U.S. Army and "fire support marines" in the U.S. Marine Corps. They are colloquially known as "FiSTers", regardless of whether they are members of a FiST. A battalion fire support officer (FSO) is the officer in charge of a battalion fire support element.
The Åland War was the operations of a Anglo-French naval force against military and civilian facilities on the coast of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1854–1856, during the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and the allied France and Britain. The war is named after the Battle of Bomarsund in Åland. Although the name of the war refers to Åland, skirmishes were also fought in other coastal towns of Finland in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland.
Admin. “U.S. and German Field Artillery in World War II: A Comparison.” The Army Historical Foundation, 7 Apr. 2023, armyhistory.org/u-s-and-german-field-artillery-in-world-war-ii-a-comparison/. Accessed 14 May 2024. Alexd. “Guadalcanal: The Joint Fight: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, The National World War II Museum, 8 Feb. 2023, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/guadalcanal-joint-fight-0. Accessed 14 May 2024. “Artillery Played ‘decisive’ Role in 1st Gulf War.” AUSA, 7 Aug. 2020, www.ausa.org/news/artillery-played-%E2%80%98decisive%E2%80%99-role-1st-gulf-war. Accessed 14 May 2024. Blosser, Kelly. “Naval Surface Fire Support—Mission Planning and Coordination.” US Navy, 1996, Accessed 02 May 2024. “Bombardments and Barrages: Preparing American Artillery for the Front in World War I.” American Battle Monuments Commission, 24 Oct. 2017, www.abmc.gov/news-events/news/bombardments-and-barrages-preparing-american-artillery-front-world-war-i#:~:text=New%20techniques%20they%20learned%20allowed,fire%20into%20a%20defined%20area. Accessed 14 May 2024. Coyne, James. “Weapons - Drones (Rpvs) | The Gulf War | Frontline.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 1993, www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/weapons/drones.html#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20May%201991,Corps%2094%3B%20the%20Army%2048. Accessed 14 May 2024. Golonka, Adrian. “The Role of Artillery in Joint Fire Support.” Safety & Defense, Safeth & Defense, 3 Nov. 2021, sd-magazine.eu/index.php/sd/article/view/136. Accessed 14 May 2024. Admin. “U.S. and German Field Artillery in World War II: A Comparison.” The Army Historical Foundation, 7 Apr. 2023, armyhistory.org/u-s-and-german-field-artillery-in-world-war-ii-a-comparison/. Accessed 14 May 2024. Alexd. “Guadalcanal: The Joint Fight: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, The National World War II Museum, 8 Feb. 2023, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/guadalcanal-joint-fight-0. Accessed 14 May 2024. “Artillery Played ‘decisive’ Role in 1st Gulf War.” AUSA, 7 Aug. 2020, www.ausa.org/news/artillery-played-%E2%80%98decisive%E2%80%99-role-1st-gulf-war. Accessed 14 May 2024. Blosser, Kelly. “Naval Surface Fire Support—Mission Planning and Coordination.” US Navy, 1996, Accessed 02 May 2024. “Bombardments and Barrages: Preparing American Artillery for the Front in World War I.” American Battle Monuments Commission, 24 Oct. 2017, www.abmc.gov/news-events/news/bombardments-and-barrages-preparing-american-artillery-front-world-war-i#:~:text=New%20techniques%20they%20learned%20allowed,fire%20into%20a%20defined%20area. Accessed 14 May 2024. Coyne, James. “Weapons - Drones (Rpvs) | The Gulf War | Frontline.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 1993, www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/weapons/drones.html#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20May%201991,Corps%2094%3B%20the%20Army%2048. Accessed 14 May 2024. Golonka, Adrian. “The Role of Artillery in Joint Fire Support.” Safety & Defense, Safeth & Defense, 3 Nov. 2021, sd-magazine.eu/index.php/sd/article/view/136. Accessed 14 May 2024. A graduate of the Naval Academy in 1930 Commander McMillian has had considerable and varied experience in connection with gunfire support strategy and tactics. He prepared the gunfire support plans for Attu. “Gunfire Support Lessons Learned in World War II.” U.S. Naval Institute, 10 Dec. 2020, www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1948/august/gunfire-support-lessons-learned-world-war-ii. Accessed 14 May 2024. Manucy, Albert C. Artillery through the Ages: A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America. Division of Publications, National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1985. O’Donohue, Daniel. Jont Fire Support. United States Military, 2019, Joint Publication 3-09, Accessed 29 Apr. 2024. Ratiliff, Timothy. “Field Artillery and Fire Support at the Operational Level: An Analysis of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.” School of Advanced Military Studies, United States Military, 2017, pp. 1–49. Why, Robert A. “The Evolution of Fire Support Doctrine Was Driven by Airmobile Doctrine and New Weapon Systems During the Vietnam War.” Mansfield State University, 2004, pp. 1–90. “World War II Aviation.” Homepage, Smithosnian, 13 July 2006, airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/world-war-ii-aviation-uh. Accessed 14 May 2024. A graduate of the Naval Academy in 1930 Commander McMillian has had considerable and varied experience in connection with gunfire support strategy and tactics. He prepared the gunfire support plans for Attu. “Gunfire Support Lessons Learned in World War II.” U.S. Naval Institute, 10 Dec. 2020, www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1948/august/gunfire-support-lessons-learned-world-war-ii. Accessed 14 May 2024. Manucy, Albert C. Artillery through the Ages: A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America. Division of Publications, National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1985. O’Donohue, Daniel. Jont Fire Support. United States Military, 2019, Joint Publication 3-09, Accessed 29 Apr. 2024. Ratiliff, Timothy. “Field Artillery and Fire Support at the Operational Level: An Analysis of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.” School of Advanced Military Studies, United States Military, 2017, pp. 1–49. Why, Robert A. “The Evolution of Fire Support Doctrine Was Driven by Airmobile Doctrine and New Weapon Systems During the Vietnam War.” Mansfield State University, 2004, pp. 1–90. “World War II Aviation.” Homepage, Smithosnian, 13 July 2006, airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/world-war-ii-aviation-uh. Accessed 14 May 2024.
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