jhungary
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Well, you watch movie, you hear actor screaming order over the radio, but how much you know what they were saying?? Or is it actually how the real soldier said in real combat situation?
In This series, I am going to explain the radio procedure and/or code, slang that soldier use as a quick reference. So you can compare them to the movie and decipher what the actor said in the movie.
And I will start this with Radio Etiquette for Calling Artillery Support.
Every Once in a while, any soldier could have gotten into situation that you can't possibly come out of alive, and then you will need to call artillery support to get you out of a Jam, and this article will cover some of the basic information and terminology for calling Artillery Support
Terms
Okay, shit happens in war, and one way or another, sometime you just can't do it alone, and when the time came, you will need to ask for support. Calling Arty support is one of the 4 common support you can call on, the other being Air Support, Naval Support and Gunship Support.
While all 4 have their own procedure, since they were of a different branch (Beside Helicopter Gunship support) they uses different term and most likely, you as an infantry soldier would not call them anyway, because you will need a FAC or CCT to call air/gunship support, an Navy FCS to call naval support. So, for soldiers, you are trained to call Artillery support.
In the first part, I will try to go over the terminology of different word and their usage, and how they can affect different situation
Call Sign - Call sign is your radio name, each unit assigned a call sign, usually start with an NATO alphabet and followed with two number, for example, Alpha Four Two (A-4-2) would be a call sign for a position within a platoon. Where usually Alpha denoted the company, 4 denoted the platoon number and 2 would be the position within that platoon
In most US cases the number 6 usually mean HQ or Command Element, either 1 or 4 is the executive element, and the rest are simply an number assignment. When you are talking to the person in command (Like Company CO, or Battalion CO) they usually have their own unique call sign (like sunray is used in Australia as a commander call sign) or simply instead of saying the number, you use the word "actual" in it, for example, A-6-Actual denote the Commander of Company A HQ Element.
Call sign not only identify yourselves over the radio, it also provide a quick reference when reporting enemy strength. For example, when you radio in a sitrep before calling artillery support, you can say
"Enemy strength is my callsign" or "Enemy strength is above my callsign"
To tell the other party on the phone a quick reference to the enemy strength
Danger Close - If you have ever played war games like Medal of Honour or call of duty, you would most definitely notice that in games, one way or another, the player have to call in a danger close fire mission. Usually the player have to sit very front and facing the enemy and dropping round within their own perimeter.
True, that is what the term is for, it's quite self-explained, but contrary to most belief, it is a misconception that there is a set range for danger close fire mission, in fact danger close fire mission was called when the caller not comfortable with the distance of the round impact, this is a very initiative thinking, it can be 400 meters, or it could be 600 meters.
If you are not comfortable for rounds drop close to you, then you will put in a danger close fire mission.
What it does tho? You may ask. First, an artillery officer can reject your fire mission if you declare it danger close, and when they do, they will either give you an alternative or you two could argue until he changes his mind, and even if he did change his mind about the fire mission, what calling danger close do is simply they will double check your target co-ordinate against your own position, to make sure you did not give your own POS by mistake.
HE - Stand for High Explosive. Which is the standard round against soft target, one of the round you use with your tube
Smoke - Smoke round can be used either to cover your position, or as a target marker. One of the round you use with your tube
Canister - A shotgun like shell that used for anti-personnel purpose. A shell that have about a thousand ball bearing in it and when it fired it will explode mid air over the target by proximate fuse and shower the enemy position with hyper speed ball bearing, much like shooting a giant shot gun over the enemy position
AP - Armor Piercing Round, have mostly been phased out after Korean War, back then small cal artillery can still do damage to tank, but it gradually become useless to modern tank these day
DP - Dual Purpose round, a shape charge round, which can be used for both soft and some hard target. One of the round you fire with your tube.
Add, Drop, Left, Right - Adjustment of the gun the caller use. It is in reference to the round drop to the target, in meters.
For example, Add-10, Left-50 Means the last round were 10 meter under and 50 meter right to the target, adjust the gun to fire a round 10 meter further and 50 meter to the left.
Fire for Effect - An caution to the artillerymen that you are not sure about the round drop and the target, usually mean adjustment to follow.
FPF - Stand for Final Protective Fire, sort of for the last stand situation, when you call FPF, it mean you are in really deep shit and if FPF cannot save you, then most likely you are coming out in a body bag, FPF usually drop extreme danger close or mostly on top of your own troop.
The Procedure
Okay, now you know the term, it's time we talk about the procedure.
There are no script for calling fire support, you have to follow a set of format, but you can use your own wording, as long as you follow the format, and the other side of the handset know what the hell are you talking about, you can call in fire support.
First Line - Radio challenge
The first line for opening the request include your own detail and a challenge, the other side have to know who is calling for fire support and who are those people really, otherwise an enemy can use a captured headset and ask your own artillery to drop rounds on you, so radio challenge must established before anything else
The Format is something like this
Artillery Unit Call Sign - Your own Call Sign - Challenge key phase
Second Line - Fire Mission type
Usually, in a combat situation, if your unit were given a dedicated fire support, the artillery regiment would assign a battery (6 guns) to you and just for you to support you, if you have a dedicated artillery support allocated, this will be the default support size.
However, you can request a higher volume artillery support, subject to approval to support you in a given engagement. You will say that in this line
The Format is something like this
Requesting (Unit Size) Fire Support Mission
Third Line - Target Information
Target can be of two general type, a pre-set target or an non-pre-set target
If you have previously assign target name to "tag" a target, and you want to drop rounds on the tag, you will use the previous assigned name, (name like Eagle, Bungle or any name that does not confused with your unit call sign) If this is the case, then you will call out the target assignment with the adjustment on this line
If the target have not been assign, you will need to give out the Map Grid reference Grid Reference is a Grid system used with your arms, usually consist of an location grid (6 numbers) and an area grid (map reference)
The Format is something like this
(With Assigned Target) Assignment Name - Correction
(Without Assiigned Target) Grid (Grid Number) - Target Type
Fourth line - Fire Mission information
This line contain information you want to gunner to know so they can act accordingly, the famous "Danger Close" is used in this line
Information such as target type, round type, number of round, situation type
The Format is something like this
Round Type - Number of Round - Target Type - Situation
Fifth Line - Repeat form the Artillery Officer
The fifth line is the read back from the artillery officer and the caller verify the information, only line 3 and 4 will be read back.
Then if the mission detail is okay, the gunner will open up, once the gunner opened up, he will then go back to the radio and tell you either "Rounds Over" or "Shot Over" telling you the round is on the way
When you, the caller hear the round approaching, you reply "Round Out" or "Shot Out"
Then the next communique would be when the round hit TTL (Time to Live) the Artillerymen will call "Splash, Over" and when the caller see or hear the rounds impact, the caller replied "Splash, Out"
If the caller do not satisified the round goes and want to make adjustment, then the caller will repeat line 1 to 4 (Without the challenge code) with words changes.
This time Second line will be
Line 2 Adjustment Follow
Line 3 Add/Drop (Distance) Left/Right (Distance)
Line 4 change if you want to change the fire mission setting.
And repeat the procedure after until you have finish your fire mission,
Grand Example
So, an end product would be something like this
I am Bravo - 4 - 0 and the callsign of the artillery is Redleg, challenge code word is willow, I want to call in a regimental fire support mission on enemy target of suspected enemy position (Thunder), it is approximately 500 meter in front and I want to call in smoke to mark the target then call in the regimental support on target
(Bravo 40)Red Leg, this is (Bravo)-4-0, I authenticate Willow
(Redleg)Bravo-4-0 this is Red Leg, go ahead
(Bravo 40)Red Leg, Fire Mission
(Bravo 40)Thunder Add -100, Left -50
(Bravo 40)1 Round, Smoke, Fire for effect, danger close
(Redleg)Bravo-4-0, Redleg, Fire Mission Thunder Add 100 Left 50, 1 Round, Smoke. Fire for Effect, Danger Close, Roger
(Redleg)Rounds Over
(Bravo 40)Rounds Out
(Redleg)Splash Over
(Bravo 40)Splash Out
(Bravo 40)Redleg, Adjustment Follow
(Bravo 40)Thunder Add-75 Right-10
(Bravo 40)HE, Fire At Will, Danger Close
(Redleg)Bravo-4-0, Redleg, Adjustment Add-75, Right 10, HE, Fire at will, Roger
(Redleg)Shot Over
(Bravo 40)Shot Out
(Redleg)Splash Over
(Bravo 40)Splash Out.
In This series, I am going to explain the radio procedure and/or code, slang that soldier use as a quick reference. So you can compare them to the movie and decipher what the actor said in the movie.
And I will start this with Radio Etiquette for Calling Artillery Support.
Every Once in a while, any soldier could have gotten into situation that you can't possibly come out of alive, and then you will need to call artillery support to get you out of a Jam, and this article will cover some of the basic information and terminology for calling Artillery Support
Terms
Okay, shit happens in war, and one way or another, sometime you just can't do it alone, and when the time came, you will need to ask for support. Calling Arty support is one of the 4 common support you can call on, the other being Air Support, Naval Support and Gunship Support.
While all 4 have their own procedure, since they were of a different branch (Beside Helicopter Gunship support) they uses different term and most likely, you as an infantry soldier would not call them anyway, because you will need a FAC or CCT to call air/gunship support, an Navy FCS to call naval support. So, for soldiers, you are trained to call Artillery support.
In the first part, I will try to go over the terminology of different word and their usage, and how they can affect different situation
Call Sign - Call sign is your radio name, each unit assigned a call sign, usually start with an NATO alphabet and followed with two number, for example, Alpha Four Two (A-4-2) would be a call sign for a position within a platoon. Where usually Alpha denoted the company, 4 denoted the platoon number and 2 would be the position within that platoon
In most US cases the number 6 usually mean HQ or Command Element, either 1 or 4 is the executive element, and the rest are simply an number assignment. When you are talking to the person in command (Like Company CO, or Battalion CO) they usually have their own unique call sign (like sunray is used in Australia as a commander call sign) or simply instead of saying the number, you use the word "actual" in it, for example, A-6-Actual denote the Commander of Company A HQ Element.
Call sign not only identify yourselves over the radio, it also provide a quick reference when reporting enemy strength. For example, when you radio in a sitrep before calling artillery support, you can say
"Enemy strength is my callsign" or "Enemy strength is above my callsign"
To tell the other party on the phone a quick reference to the enemy strength
Danger Close - If you have ever played war games like Medal of Honour or call of duty, you would most definitely notice that in games, one way or another, the player have to call in a danger close fire mission. Usually the player have to sit very front and facing the enemy and dropping round within their own perimeter.
True, that is what the term is for, it's quite self-explained, but contrary to most belief, it is a misconception that there is a set range for danger close fire mission, in fact danger close fire mission was called when the caller not comfortable with the distance of the round impact, this is a very initiative thinking, it can be 400 meters, or it could be 600 meters.
If you are not comfortable for rounds drop close to you, then you will put in a danger close fire mission.
What it does tho? You may ask. First, an artillery officer can reject your fire mission if you declare it danger close, and when they do, they will either give you an alternative or you two could argue until he changes his mind, and even if he did change his mind about the fire mission, what calling danger close do is simply they will double check your target co-ordinate against your own position, to make sure you did not give your own POS by mistake.
HE - Stand for High Explosive. Which is the standard round against soft target, one of the round you use with your tube
Smoke - Smoke round can be used either to cover your position, or as a target marker. One of the round you use with your tube
Canister - A shotgun like shell that used for anti-personnel purpose. A shell that have about a thousand ball bearing in it and when it fired it will explode mid air over the target by proximate fuse and shower the enemy position with hyper speed ball bearing, much like shooting a giant shot gun over the enemy position
AP - Armor Piercing Round, have mostly been phased out after Korean War, back then small cal artillery can still do damage to tank, but it gradually become useless to modern tank these day
DP - Dual Purpose round, a shape charge round, which can be used for both soft and some hard target. One of the round you fire with your tube.
Add, Drop, Left, Right - Adjustment of the gun the caller use. It is in reference to the round drop to the target, in meters.
For example, Add-10, Left-50 Means the last round were 10 meter under and 50 meter right to the target, adjust the gun to fire a round 10 meter further and 50 meter to the left.
Fire for Effect - An caution to the artillerymen that you are not sure about the round drop and the target, usually mean adjustment to follow.
FPF - Stand for Final Protective Fire, sort of for the last stand situation, when you call FPF, it mean you are in really deep shit and if FPF cannot save you, then most likely you are coming out in a body bag, FPF usually drop extreme danger close or mostly on top of your own troop.
The Procedure
Okay, now you know the term, it's time we talk about the procedure.
There are no script for calling fire support, you have to follow a set of format, but you can use your own wording, as long as you follow the format, and the other side of the handset know what the hell are you talking about, you can call in fire support.
First Line - Radio challenge
The first line for opening the request include your own detail and a challenge, the other side have to know who is calling for fire support and who are those people really, otherwise an enemy can use a captured headset and ask your own artillery to drop rounds on you, so radio challenge must established before anything else
The Format is something like this
Artillery Unit Call Sign - Your own Call Sign - Challenge key phase
Second Line - Fire Mission type
Usually, in a combat situation, if your unit were given a dedicated fire support, the artillery regiment would assign a battery (6 guns) to you and just for you to support you, if you have a dedicated artillery support allocated, this will be the default support size.
However, you can request a higher volume artillery support, subject to approval to support you in a given engagement. You will say that in this line
The Format is something like this
Requesting (Unit Size) Fire Support Mission
Third Line - Target Information
Target can be of two general type, a pre-set target or an non-pre-set target
If you have previously assign target name to "tag" a target, and you want to drop rounds on the tag, you will use the previous assigned name, (name like Eagle, Bungle or any name that does not confused with your unit call sign) If this is the case, then you will call out the target assignment with the adjustment on this line
If the target have not been assign, you will need to give out the Map Grid reference Grid Reference is a Grid system used with your arms, usually consist of an location grid (6 numbers) and an area grid (map reference)
The Format is something like this
(With Assigned Target) Assignment Name - Correction
(Without Assiigned Target) Grid (Grid Number) - Target Type
Fourth line - Fire Mission information
This line contain information you want to gunner to know so they can act accordingly, the famous "Danger Close" is used in this line
Information such as target type, round type, number of round, situation type
The Format is something like this
Round Type - Number of Round - Target Type - Situation
Fifth Line - Repeat form the Artillery Officer
The fifth line is the read back from the artillery officer and the caller verify the information, only line 3 and 4 will be read back.
Then if the mission detail is okay, the gunner will open up, once the gunner opened up, he will then go back to the radio and tell you either "Rounds Over" or "Shot Over" telling you the round is on the way
When you, the caller hear the round approaching, you reply "Round Out" or "Shot Out"
Then the next communique would be when the round hit TTL (Time to Live) the Artillerymen will call "Splash, Over" and when the caller see or hear the rounds impact, the caller replied "Splash, Out"
If the caller do not satisified the round goes and want to make adjustment, then the caller will repeat line 1 to 4 (Without the challenge code) with words changes.
This time Second line will be
Line 2 Adjustment Follow
Line 3 Add/Drop (Distance) Left/Right (Distance)
Line 4 change if you want to change the fire mission setting.
And repeat the procedure after until you have finish your fire mission,
Grand Example
So, an end product would be something like this
I am Bravo - 4 - 0 and the callsign of the artillery is Redleg, challenge code word is willow, I want to call in a regimental fire support mission on enemy target of suspected enemy position (Thunder), it is approximately 500 meter in front and I want to call in smoke to mark the target then call in the regimental support on target
(Bravo 40)Red Leg, this is (Bravo)-4-0, I authenticate Willow
(Redleg)Bravo-4-0 this is Red Leg, go ahead
(Bravo 40)Red Leg, Fire Mission
(Bravo 40)Thunder Add -100, Left -50
(Bravo 40)1 Round, Smoke, Fire for effect, danger close
(Redleg)Bravo-4-0, Redleg, Fire Mission Thunder Add 100 Left 50, 1 Round, Smoke. Fire for Effect, Danger Close, Roger
(Redleg)Rounds Over
(Bravo 40)Rounds Out
(Redleg)Splash Over
(Bravo 40)Splash Out
(Bravo 40)Redleg, Adjustment Follow
(Bravo 40)Thunder Add-75 Right-10
(Bravo 40)HE, Fire At Will, Danger Close
(Redleg)Bravo-4-0, Redleg, Adjustment Add-75, Right 10, HE, Fire at will, Roger
(Redleg)Shot Over
(Bravo 40)Shot Out
(Redleg)Splash Over
(Bravo 40)Splash Out.
In fact, I did not play any video game for a very long time already...
