Fires is the related tasks and systems that provide collective and coordinated use of Army indirect fires, air and

missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ...

, and joint fires through the targeting process. Alternatively, it can be defined as the use of weapon systems to create a specific

lethal Lethality (also called deadliness or perniciousness) is how capable something is of causing death. Most often it is used when referring to diseases, chemical weapons, biological weapons, or their toxic chemical components. The use of this ter ...

nonlethal Non-lethal weapons, also called nonlethal weapons, less-lethal weapons, less-than-lethal weapons, non-deadly weapons, compliance weapons, or pain-inducing weapons are weapons intended to be less likely to kill a living target than conventional ...

effect on a target. Fires has traditionally focused on

fire support Fire support is defined by the United States Department of Defense as "Fires that directly support land, maritime, amphibious, and special operations forces to engage enemy forces, combat formations, and facilities in pursuit of tactical and oper ...

systems such as

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

and

close air support In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and moveme ...

, but is increasingly being used to refer to non-lethal systems including

information operations Information Operations is a category of direct and indirect support operations for the United States Military. By definition in Joint Publication 3-13, "IO are described as the integrated employment of electronic warfare (EW), computer network ...

cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...

, an
civilian-military relationships

Warfighting Function

Fires is one of the six warfighting functions defined by the US Army, which also include movement and maneuver, intelligence, sustainment, command and control, and protection. The fires warfighting function is the related tasks and systems that provide collective and coordinated use of Army indirect fires, AMD, and joint fires through the targeting process. Army fires systems deliver fires in support of

offensive Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

and

defensive Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

tasks to create specific lethal and nonlethal effects on a target. The fires warfighting function as defined by the Army includes the following tasks: * Deliver fires. * Integrate all forms of Army, joint and multinational fires. * Conduct targeting. The

Marine Corps Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...

defines the fires warfighting function as "Fires harass, suppress, neutralize, or destroy in order to accomplish the targeting objective, which may be to disrupt, delay, limit, persuade, or influence. Fires include the collective and coordinated use of target acquisition systems, direct and indirect fire weapons, armed aircraft of all types, and other lethal and nonlethal means. Fires are normally used in concert with maneuver, which helps shape the

battlespace Battlespace or battle-space is a term used to signify a unified military strategy to integrate and combine armed forces for the military theatre of operations, including air, information, land, sea, cyber and outer space to achieve military ...

, setting conditions for decisive action." Harassment, suppression, neutralization, and destruction are key words used in targeting to define the impact of the weapon system on the target. Persuade and influence are tasks related to nonlethal fires such as influence operations.{{Cite book, title=MCDP 1-0 Marine Corps Operations, last=, first=, publisher=US Marine Corps, year=2011, isbn=, location=, pages=

References

Military tactics United States Army doctrine