ATP-3-09-42 Fire Support for the Brigade Combat Team Download
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Planning and Integrating Fires for BCT Operations 1 March 2016 ATP 3-09.42 6-29 planners assess these hazards, develop controls, determine residual risks, and advise the BCT commander on risk mitigation measures. 6-102. The BCT commander alone accepts or rejects risk. The FSCOORD, fires cell planners, and targeting officers advise the BCT commander concerning risk associated with fire support related hazards and recommend fire support tasks as controls to mitigate it. The commander decides what amount of risk to accept. Fire support risk mitigation may include assistance from other BCT staff. An example of using information operations for fire support accident risk mitigation is the integrated use of civil affairs, military information support operations, public affairs and Soldier and leader engagements or other information- related capabilities to warn the local populace of the accident hazards (for instance those hazards associated with unexploded dual-purpose improved conventional munitions bomblets). When appropriate, the FSCOORD, fires cell planners, and targeting officers all work together with information collection planners to convert risk mitigation measures into fire support tasks. These are assigned to units or placed in the fire support or information annex coordinating instructions. Risk control measures that apply to the entire force are placed in the OPLAN or OPORD coordinating instructions 6-103. The FSCOORD and fires cell planners produce a list of fire support related hazards and assessments of their associated risks. This list becomes the fire support input to the S-3 risk assessment. For more on risk assessment see ATP 5-19. PREPARING FIELD ARTILLERY TASKS 6-104. Field artillery tasks must accomplish a well-defined result. The BCT commander or brigade FSO my directly state a field artillery task or it may be inferred by the supporting field artillery battalion commander. For example if a fire support task is to be successfully performed, the supporting field artillery task must be successfully executed. Table 6-17 shows an example fire support task, followed by an example of an field artillery task (table 6-18) derived from that fire support task: Table 6-17. Fire support task (example) Fire Support Task 1 Task: Degrade enemy Indirect fire system’s ability to place effective fires on the forward operating base. Purpose: Allow unimpeded buildup of combat power. Effect: Enemy indirect fire systems are not able to interfere with forward operating base activities. 6-105. After studying the fire support task 1, the field artillery commander derived a field artillery task. See the field artillery task found in table 6-18. Table 6-18. Derived field artillery task (example) Field Artillery Task 1 Task: Destroy enemy Indirect fire system’s ability to place effective fires on the forward operating base. Purpose: Allow unimpeded buildup of combat power. Effect: All identified mortars destroyed. Assessment sensors include infantry, Army aviation, and scouts. 6-106. After deriving the field artillery task 1, the field artillery commander, as the agent who will execute the mission to achieve the desired effect, plans in detail to include priorities, allocations and restrictions. The planning addresses movement functions and priorities, critical tasks to subordinate firing units during execution of the field artillery task and others tasks required in order to achieve the planning’s purpose. For Field Artillery Task 1, the field artillery battalion command post prescribed priority of fires, priority of survey support, concept of movement, and scheme of fires to achieve the field artillery task’s purpose. Additionally, Field Artillery Task 1 includes primary and alternate position areas, and triggers for movements. The planning worksheets previously described may be used. 6-107. In planning for field artillery task 1, the commander considers the elements of the task – the task description itself, its purpose, and the desired effect. Task describes the objectives that fires must achieve against a specific enemy capability. The task has three parts: targeting objective, enemy formation and