Operational Fires for the 21st Century: The Argument for a Joint Fires Coordinator.

摘要

A void exists in current joint doctrine concerning operational fires for the joint task force. This vacuum is doubly troubling when the proliferation of increasingly capable information management systems, digital communications links, all weather target acquisition assets, and precision attack systems is considered. The Persian Gulf War highlighted weaknesses in inter-service cooperation of fire support, but seven years after the conflict, substantive changes to resolve these doctrinal problems remain unmade. As part of a solution, this paper argues for the creation of a Joint Forces Fire Support Coordinator and a Joint Fire Support Cell to coordinate operational fires for the joint force commander. It further asserts the continued viability of the Fire Support Coordination Line while suggesting the need for a doctrinal boundary delineating the areas of responsibility of the land and air component commanders. This work uses data on the technical capabilities and interoperability of service component systems to demonstrate that operational fires, offering decisive battlefield effects, are reasonable to assume in the near future. Operational theories from students at the Command and General Staff College, Army War College, and Naval War College are used to support the argument that many of those assets now dedicated to air interdiction and deep attack by individual services should be fused into a unified combat power capable of effecting decisive results at the operational level.