Fire support is long-range firepower provided to a front-line military unit. Typically, fire support is provided by artillery or close air support (usually directed by a forward observer), and is used to shape the battlefield or, more optimistically, define the battle. Battleships, for example, have also been a viable form of fire support in the past, being the main effort in naval warfare. Fire support's history and lineage traces through the advent of cannons in warfare as artillery, a major shaping force on the battlefield since its inception. Fire support, as an extension, is the marriage of artillery to the forces in contact. It is the direct ability to properly utilize artillery. As opposed to direct fire, that of the forces in contact, fire support utilizes artillery and close air support.
In the US Army, line companies in standard Heavy Brigade Combat Teams often utilize Fire Support Teams, or FST mounted in forward support vehicles to observe and adjust fires.
Famous quotes containing the words fire and/or support:
“While there we heard the Indian fire his gun twice.... This sudden, loud, crashing noise in the still aisles of the forest, affected me like an insult to nature, or ill manners at any rate, as if you were to fire a gun in a hall or temple.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Any relation to the land, the habit of tilling it, or mining it, or even hunting on it, generates the feeling of patriotism. He who keeps shop on it, or he who merely uses it as a support to his desk and ledger, or to his manufactory, values it less.”
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