FM-3-09 Fire Support and Field Artillery Operations Download
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Chapter 1 1-2 FM 3-09 30 April 2020 space, cyber, air, sea, and land to counter our way of war by establishing zones of anti-access (A2)/area denial (AD). The enemy may employ A2/AD strategies. Enemy A2 refers to those actions and capabilities, usually long-range, designed to prevent an opposing force from entering an operational area (OA). AD refers to those actions and capabilities, usually of shorter range, designed not to keep an opposing force out, but to limit its freedom of action within the operational area. 1-4. A peer or near-peer force represents the greatest potential threat to the U.S. forces. Peer threats employ their resources across all domains to attack the vulnerabilities of the U.S. and our allies. The threat is any combination of actors, entities, or forces that have the capability and intent to harm United States forces, United States national interests, or the homeland (ADP 3-0). They use their capabilities to create lethal and nonlethal effects throughout an operational environment (OE). An operational environment is a composite of the conditions, circumstances, and influences that affect the employment of capabilities and bear on the decisions of the commander (JP 3-0). In a new era of great power competition, our nation's adversaries seek to achieve their strategic aims, short of conflict, by the use of layered stand-off in the political, military and economic realms to separate the U.S. from our unified action partners. During large-scale combat operations they will employ A2/AD to separate U.S. forces and our allies in time, space, and function in order to defeat us. Large-scale combat operations are extensive joint combat operations in terms of scope and size or forces committed, conducted as a campaign aimed at achieving operational and strategic objectives (ADP 3-0). Technological achievements over the past decades have made possible great qualitative improvements in their weaponry to match observed vulnerabilities in U.S. systems and forces. They seek to delay friendly forces long enough to achieve their goals and end hostilities before they reach culmination. Peer threats will employ various methods to employ their national elements of power to render U.S. military power irrelevant. 1-5. It is likely that U.S. and allied forces' FS assets will be outnumbered and outranged by peer systems. To defeat peer forces in large-scale combat, U.S. forces must first penetrate A2/AD systems, establish a position of relative advantage, retain the initiative and prevent enemy forces from achieving mass, momentum, and continuous land combat. A balanced application of both firepower and maneuver is essential for US forces to achieve these goals. This calls for synchronization and convergence across the FS system to attack high-payoff targets (HPTs) across the width and depth of the OA. A high-payoff target is a target whose loss to the enemy will significantly contribute to the success of the friendly course of action (JP 3-60). As opposed to a high-value target which is a target the enemy commander requires for the successful completion of the mission (JP 3-60). Not all high-value targets become HPTs. 1-6. Some peer threats have chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear environment (CBRN) weapons capabilities and the ability to employ such weapons in certain situations. However, capability does not always equal intent to use, and it is generally presumed that most would use restraint. Preparation and planning that takes CBRN capabilities into account is of paramount importance in any confrontation with an adversary armed with them. Understanding threat CBRN weapons doctrine is important, particularly during large-scale combat operations. 1-7. The functions and principles of FS must apply to an ever-increasing number of hostile global situations that extend across the range of military operations. The FS system must be flexible enough to respond to any number of operations across the conflict continuum. Threat operations across all domains will attempt to degrade all aspects of FS, from command and control (C2), to target acquisition (TA), to delivery. FIRE SUPPORT IN JOINT AND UNIFIED LAND OPERATIONS “Army forces have effectively integrated capabilities and synchronized actions in the air, land, and maritime domains for decades. Rapid and continued advances in technology and the military application of new technologies to the space domain, the electromagnetic spectrum, and the information environment (particularly cyberspace) require special consideration in planning and converging effects from across all domains.” FM 3-0. 1-8. Joint operations encompass all five domains: air, land, maritime, space, and cyberspace which includes, the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) and the information environment. FS is most effective when its effects are converged across all of these domains. Convergence is the concerted employment of combat power against different decisive points in multiple domains to create effects against a system, formation, or capability. Combat power is the total means of destructive, constructive, and information capabilities that a