Plunging fire on armoured warships (Warships To-day, 1936)

Plunging fire is a form of

indirect fire Indirect fire is aiming and firing a projectile without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire. Aiming is performed by calculating azimuth and inclination, and may include correcting aim by ...

, where gunfire is fired at a

trajectory A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete traj ...

to make it fall on its target from above. It is normal at the high trajectories used to attain long

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

, and can be used deliberately to attack a target not susceptible to direct or

grazing fire Grazing fire is a term used in military science and defined by NATO and the United States Department of Defense as “Fire approximately parallel to the ground where the center of the cone of fire does not rise above one meter from the ground.” Gr ...

due to not being in direct line of sight. In

naval warfare Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large la ...

, plunging shellfire was theoretically capable of penetrating an enemy ship's thinner deck

armor Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...

rather than firing directly at a warship's heavily

armored Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or f ...

side. Plunging fire in terrestrial warfare allows attacking a target not in direct line of sight, for example over the brow of a hill engaging in a

reverse slope defence A reverse slope defence is a military tactic where a defending force is positioned on the slope of an elevated terrain feature such as a hill, ridge, or mountain, on the side opposite from the attacking force. This tactic both hinders the attacke ...

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 ...

weapons such as

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

s and

mortars Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a villag ...

are designed for this purpose.

Machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

s and belt-fed

grenade launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The mos ...

s may also use plunging fire. A top attack weapon is designed to attack armoured vehicles from above as a form of plunging fire, as the

armour Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...

is usually thinnest on the top of the vehicle. Ideally, it will penetrate

perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

to the attacked surface. The device may be delivered (often as a

submunition A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicl ...

) by an

anti-tank guided missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

, mortar,

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 ...

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

, or even an emplaced

munition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

such as a mine. Top attack munitions use either a

high-explosive anti-tank High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is the effect of a shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate heavy armor. The warhead functions by having an explosive charge collapse a metal liner inside the warhead into a high-velocity ...

(HEAT) warhead for direct impact or near impact, or an

explosively formed penetrator An explosively formed penetrator (EFP), also known as an explosively formed projectile (EFP), a self-forging warhead, or a self-forging fragment, is the product of a shaped charge designed to penetrate armor effectively. As the name suggests, the ...

(EFP) warhead fired while flying over the target (overfly top attack, OTA). The top attack concept was first put into service by the

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces ( sv, Försvarsmakten, "the Defense Force") is the government agency that forms the armed forces of Sweden, tasked with the defense of the country as well as with promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting internati ...

in 1988 with the Bofors

RBS 56 BILL The RBS 56 BILL is a Swedish manportable SACLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile developed by AB Bofors. Development began in 1979 and entered production in 1985. The Swedish Army began receiving the missile in March 1988. BILL stands for (Bofors, ...

top-attack anti-tank missile.

Weapon systems using top attack

Notable weapon systems that utilize top attack include:

References

Artillery operation Weapon operation {{artillery-stub

Weapon systems using top attack

See also

References