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 Re: Military Abbreviation
 
DavidS
1440 posts
www.novelier.com
3rd
Joined
1/23/2006
Re: Military Abbreviation
Posted: 03 Jul 09 4:56 PM
Military topographical maps have grids which are numbered north-south and east-west. In giving coordinates, you estimate the interior of the grid box in tenths. It's a long time since I last looked at a military topo map, but if memory serves right the scale is 25,000-1. That works out to a little more than 200 feet per tenth of a grid box. So if the spotter round hits the exact coordinate you gave, which it won't for various reasons, it can be off your intended target by more than a hundred feet. In my day, you gave your position, and the azimuth and range to the target. You're probably going to be more accurate in giving your own map location than you will in giving the location of a target hundreds of meters distant. But you have to make damn sure that the fire support center knows that you're giving your position, not the position of the target. In adjusting fire, "up," "down," "left," and "right" are relative to your azimuth. An "azimuth" is the direction in compass degrees, you get it by sighting at the target through a military compass. Boy Scouts use the same kind of compass--at least they did when I was in the Scouts.

Alisium, damn good description of calling in a fire mission.
DavidS
1440 posts
www.novelier.com
3rd
Joined
1/23/2006
Re: Military Abbreviation
Posted: 03 Jul 09 4:57 PM
Military topographical maps have grids which are numbered north-south and east-west. In giving coordinates, you estimate the interior of the grid box in tenths. It's a long time since I last looked at a military topo map, but if memory serves right the scale is 25,000-1. That works out to a little more than 200 feet per tenth of a grid box. So if the spotter round hits the exact coordinate you gave, which it won't for various reasons, it can be off your intended target by more than a hundred feet. In my day, you gave your position, and the azimuth and range to the target. You're probably going to be more accurate in giving your own map location than you will in giving the location of a target hundreds of meters distant. But you have to make damn sure that the fire support center knows that you're giving your position, not the position of the target. In adjusting fire, "up," "down," "left," and "right" are relative to your azimuth. An "azimuth" is the direction in compass degrees, you get it by sighting at the target through a military compass. Boy Scouts use the same kind of compass--at least they did when I was in the Scouts.

Alisium, damn good description of calling in a fire mission.
Skink
2020 posts
1st
Joined
12/17/2007
Re: Military Abbreviation
Posted: 08 Jul 09 8:46 PM
"Hurry up and wait" What does it mean?
The Prime Master read the message again. This time, by the time he finished reading, he smiled beatifically. The message included a great deal of information about the Earthman Army and airpower and their tactics. This was inteligence that would serve the Emperor's army well when it next encountered the Earthman Army. As it most assuredly would.......
z665almostevil
1086 posts
3rd
Joined
4/10/2007
Re: Military Abbreviation
Posted: 09 Jul 09 12:28 AM Modified By z665almostevil on 7/9/2009 12:29:05 AM)
exactly what it says... you hurry up to get somewhere on time then you wait for the other bastard to get there
Alisium
204 posts
www.usmc.mil
5th
Joined
10/18/2007
Re: Military Abbreviation
Posted: 09 Jul 09 12:39 AM
 DavidS wrote
Military topographical maps have grids which are numbered north-south and east-west. In giving coordinates, you estimate the interior of the grid box in tenths. It's a long time since I last looked at a military topo map, but if memory serves right the scale is 25,000-1. That works out to a little more than 200 feet per tenth of a grid box. So if the spotter round hits the exact coordinate you gave, which it won't for various reasons, it can be off your intended target by more than a hundred feet. In my day, you gave your position, and the azimuth and range to the target. You're probably going to be more accurate in giving your own map location than you will in giving the location of a target hundreds of meters distant. But you have to make damn sure that the fire support center knows that you're giving your position, not the position of the target. In adjusting fire, "up," "down," "left," and "right" are relative to your azimuth. An "azimuth" is the direction in compass degrees, you get it by sighting at the target through a military compass. Boy Scouts use the same kind of compass--at least they did when I was in the Scouts.

Alisium, damn good description of calling in a fire mission.


Yep, still the 25000:1 and grid squares of 1000m.

I don't know why but when we learn call for fire it's always grid then someone comes up to say, "And there is also this other mission called polar...."

Why it's not used or taught much (at least in 1/4) I don't know. It is more accurate, that is for sure.

And thank you, David, it's been several years since I gave my last CAS or fire support class.

Did you ever get a chance to read, "The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO's Contribution to Warfare" by H.J. Poole?

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