ATP-3-09-42 Fire Support for the Brigade Combat Team Download
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Chapter 6 6-30 ATP 3-09.42 1 March 2016 function. Destroy, delay, disrupt or limit are all examples of objectives. Formation is the size of the threat, and function is the capability of this threat to achieve its task and purpose. Destroy is the targeting objective, all enemy indirect fire systems are clearly the enemy formation, and the enemy’s ability to place effective fires on the friendly base is the function in Field Artillery Task 1. 6-108. Purpose describes how the task will contribute to achieving the commander’s intent. As with a fire support task, this should identify the decisive point that will leverage the targeting effect. It is constructed very similarly, if not identical to Fire Support Task 1, allowing unimpeded buildup of combat power is the purpose of the Field Artillery Task 1. 6-109. Desired effect is contained in the purpose statement and attempts to quantify the successful accomplishment of the task. The desired effect, for example, two 81-mm mortars destroyed, is assessment- oriented and assists in the decision to reattack or not. 6-110. Assessment sensors include infantry, Army aviation, and scouts. Effects are more than destroying the enemy mortar; they are quantifiable and observable. Accurate assessment and confirmation that the system has been destroyed are the end result of the task. Disseminate the developed field artillery task in the field artillery battalion OPLAN or OPORD or in subparagraph 3e of the BCT’s OPORD as the field artillery support plan. Using the worksheet matrix technique seems to work well, but unit standard operating procedures will determine this. 6-111. Before publication of the fires annex to the OPORD, the field artillery battalion commander (as the FSCOORD) or the brigade FSO (as the FSCOORD’s representative) participate in the MDMP in the brigade command post. This officer must understand fire support task development. The brigade FSO assists the field artillery battalion command post in parallel planning by providing working knowledge of fire support task development. 6-112. Questions the FSCOORD or brigade FSO must ask include: Are any essential tasks identified for field artillery fire support? Which fire support tasks identify the field artillery assets that are required to provide fires in the effects portion of the fire support task? How is the field artillery battalion command post tied into this? How would the fire support task determine movement priorities? What ammunition or other special considerations are there? Is an air assault planned? Answers to these questions assist the field artillery battalion in the battalion’s mission analysis and field artillery task development. See also Appendix C. 6-113. Establishing a menu of field artillery tasks with a checklist of considerations for each type of possible mission is another technique for efficient and effective field artillery task production. This menu is not a cookie-cutter technique for field artillery tasks, but, instead, a memory jogger of the normal tasks associated with common missions. A matrix format works well. See table 6-19. Table 6-19. Field artillery task considerations (example) Field Artillery Task Considerations Destroy mortars Ammunition, observer plan, positioning of field artillery assets and counterfire radars, azimuths of fire and cuing azimuths, proactive and reactive predictive analysis, sensor- to-shooter architecture, quick fire net(s), fire order (for example destroy mortars), counterfire drill, clearance of fires procedures, maneuver tied into the targeting methodology. Field Artillery Task Considerations Suppress enemy air defenses Ammunition; observer plan, positioning of field artillery assets and counterfire radars, azimuths of fire and cuing azimuths, sensor-to-shooter architecture, quick fire net(s), fire order (for example destroy air defense systems), suppression of enemy air defenses coverage/plan, clearance of fires procedures, maneuver tied into the targeting methodology. FIRES IN THE CLOSE FIGHT 6-114. The FSCOORD, fires cell planners, and targeting officers use known rates of fire, target descriptions, and other data such as the Joint Munitions Effects computations to conduct detailed analyses