FM-3-09 Fire Support and Field Artillery Operations Download
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Foundations of Fire Support and the Role of the Field Artillery 30 April 2020 FM 3-09 1-3 military unit or formation can apply at a given time (ADP 3-0). FS must also be integrated with our unified action partners. Unified action partners are those military forces, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and elements of the private sector with whom Army forces plan, coordinate, synchronize, and integrate during the conduct of operations (ADP 3-0). An example of an Army FS capability employed as part of the joint force is long range precision surface to surface fires used to penetrate and dis-integrate the enemy's A2/AD systems both on land and at sea. Disintegrate is to disrupt the enemy's command and control system, degrading its ability to conduct operations while leading to a rapid collapse of the enemy's capabilities to fight (ADP 3-0). They are closely integrated into the joint force commander's (JFC)'s scheme of operations as part of the Army's overall FS contribution. The joint force commander is a general term applied to a combatant commander, subunified commander, or joint task force commander authorized to exercise combatant command (command authority) or operational control over a joint force (JP 1). 1-9. ULO encompasses four strategic roles: shape operational environments, prevent conflict, prevail in large-scale combat, and consolidate gains. The strategic roles clarify the enduring reasons for which the U.S. Army is manned, organized, trained, and equipped. Strategic roles are not phases of an operation or a task, and they do not necessarily occur sequentially or on distinct terrain. Rather, the Army contributes to the joint operation specifically by providing forces and conducting operations across all four strategic roles. The maneuver commander is responsible for conducting these operations on a simultaneous basis. The requirement to integrate and synchronize FS with these strategic roles is inherent with this responsibility. 1-10. ULO and the conduct of large-scale ground combat operations does not pose any revolutionary challenges for the FS system. Instead, it reestablishes a requirement to increase the scope of FS to an operational level that has not existed since Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. THE FIELD ARTILLERY’S ROLE AND CORE COMPETENCIES 1-11. A role is the broad and enduring purpose for which the organization or branch is established (ADP 1- 01). A branch has only one role. The role of the field artillery is to suppress, neutralize, or destroy the enemy by cannon, rocket, and missile fire and to integrate and synchronize all fire support assets into operations. This role clearly establishes why the field artillery was created-what our branch uniquely contributes to the conduct of combined and joint operations. 1-12. A core competency is an essential and enduring capability that a branch or an organization provides to Army operations (ADP 1-01). The field artillery has two core competencies that describe what our branch contributes to our Nation's security and to the JFC: To coordinate fire support, which is the planning and executing of fire so targets are adequately covered by a suitable weapon or group of weapons (JP 3-09). To deliver indirect fire. Indirect fire is fire delivered at a target not visible to the firing unit (TC 3-09.81). THE FIRE SUPPORT SYSTEM 1-13. Fire support is achieved through simultaneous and coordinated interaction of all of the elements of the joint FS system, thorough continuous planning, aggressive coordination, and vigorous execution at all echelons of command. The FS system elements (figure 1-1 on page 1-5) are: Command and control (personnel, Command posts (CPs), networks, processes and procedures). Target acquisition (TA). Attack/delivery systems. 1-14. These elements are the tools the commanders uses to make fire support work. How they use these tools depends on how well commanders and staffs understand and integrate the core competency of the FS coordination process. This process must occur simultaneously at all echelons of command, but it is more complex at echelons above brigade. 1-15. The rapid and continuous integration of the FS system at all echelons of command across the joint forces must be synchronized with maneuver forces. For this reason, the commander seeks and may accept