The 5 Requirements (Accurate Predicted Fire)
This first requirement ensures the FDC knows exactly where the target is located on the map.
What is Accurate Target Location and Size?
The total number of standard elements contained in a complete Call for Fire.
What is 6?
This branch of ballistics studies the action and motion of the projectile while it is still inside the gun tube.
What is Interior Ballistics?
Sent by the FDC to the observer after processing data, this acronym outlines the unit firing, number of rounds, changes, and target number.
What is the MTO (Message to Observer)?
This olive-drab shell is the bread and butter of 155mm field artillery, containing roughly 24 pounds of TNT or IMX-101 filler for blast and fragmentation.
What is the M795 High Explosive (HE) projectile?
This requirement addresses knowing the precise geographic location and altitude of the howitzers.
What is Accurate Firing Unit Location?
These are the first two elements sent in the very first transmission of a standard CFF.
What are Observer ldentification and Warning Order?
This branch of ballistics describes the behavior and path of the projectile from the moment it leaves the muzzle until it impacts the target.
What is Exterior Ballistics?
This mandatory verbal command tells the observer and FDC recorder that a round has officially left the weapon tube.
What is Shot?
Fired with a mechanical or electronic time fuze, this base-ejecting round deploys a parachute and a magnesium candle to light up night operations.
What is the M485 lluminating (llum) projectile?
This requirement accounts for variations in muzzle velocity, gun tube wear, and propellant temperature.
What is Accurate Weapon and Ammunition Information?
The three standard methods of target location are Grid, Polar, and this method, which requires a pre-established target or point known to both the observer and FDC.
What is Shift from a Known Point?
This is the specific term for the curved, parabolic path an artillery shel takes through the air.
What is a Trajectory?
This warning is sent to the observer exactly 5 seconds before the projectile is calculated to impact the target area.
What is Splash?
These cargo-carrying projectiles (either standard or base-burning for extended range) deploy dual-purpose armor-packaged submunitions across a footprint.
What is the M483A1 or M864 DPICM projectile?
Wind, air density, air temperature, and even the temperature of the sky are accounted for under this requirement.
What is Accurate Meteorological Information?
This phrase must be announced in the method of engagement if friendly troops are within 600 meters of the target area.
What is Danger Close?
This physical phenomenon, caused by the Earth's rotation, forces the FDC to adjust firing data for long-range trajectories.
What is the Coriolis Effect?
Before digital systems like AFATDS take over, a manual FDC uses this specific slide-rule tool to quickly convert a map range in meters into a quadrant elevation for the guns.
What is a Graphical Firing Table (GFT)?
This specific electronic fuze operates on a radio-frequency transceiver system to automatically trigger a lethal airburst roughly 7 meters above the deck.
What is the M732 Proximity (VT) fuze?
This final requirement ensures that no data-entry, translation, or mechanical errors are made when using firing tables or digital software.
What are Accurate Computational Procedures?
When announcing a Call for Fire using the Polar plot method, this is the critical piece of data the FDC must already know about the observer before any firing data can be calculated.
What is the observer's location (or grid)?
This short, violent ballistic phase covers the brief moment the projectile exits the muzzle and is still engulfed in surging gas right outside the tube.
What is Transitional Ballistics?
This method of control is requested when the observer needs rounds to detonate on the target at an exact, synchronized minute and second.
What is Time on Target (TOT)?
This high-tier, fin-stabilized, GPS-guided projectile extends the maximum effective range of 155mm cannon systems while providing surgical, first-round precision.
What is the M982 Excalibur precisionguided projectile?