HOW TO DRAW A FIRE
PLAN
REFERENCES
• SEABEE COMBAT HANDBOOK VOL. 1
• SEABEE COMBAT HANDBOOK VOL. 2
• CONSTRUCTION BATTLE SKILLS
GUIDE P-1160
SMEAC
• Your first step in drawing a fire plan is to review
your SMEAC. It has all of the information that
you will need to draw an effective fire plan.
• Some things that you will want to look for in your
SMEAC is what weapons you will have, do you
have fire support, does the enemy have CBR
capabilities, and who are your adjacent units.
• Really pay attention to the SMEAC it is your
bible in a SCW board.
Review the Area
• After you have gone over your SMEAC, you will want to
review the area you are in charge of.
• You want to look for avenues of approach, contour of the
area, roads, streams, rivers, towns, hills, depressions,
and vegetation.
• This seems small but it will cause the most problems on
a board. If you do not know what something is ask.
Most of the symbols on a Fire Plan are self explanatory,
but some are not.
• Also pay attention to your ranges on the side of the map.
You must use these. It will look funny if you have the
range drawn out on a M240B at 2000 meters when its
maximum effective range is 1100 meters.
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YOUR UNIT
• After you have reviewed the area you will
be occupying you must place your units in
an area that will protect you the best. You
do not have to place your units on the zero
marking, but remember that your
distances still matter.
• Use the correct symbols to mark your units
whether it be a squad, platoon, company,
or battalion.
FIRE PLAN SYMBOLS
FIRE TEAM
SQUAD
PLATOON
COMMAND POST
LP
M2
WOODS
MK19
WATER
M16
OP
LISTENING
POST
OBSERVATION
POST
AB001
Z002
AT-4
BRIDGE
POINT
TARGET
M240
LINEAR
TARGET
CLAYMORE
YOUR UNIT (cont)
• At this point you will also draw in your
lateral limits. Lateral limits are your
physical fire limitations. It does not matter
what weapon will be in each unit for you to
draw lateral limits.
• Lateral limits are generally drawn to cover
a 60 degree area. Be reasonable when
drawing your limits. Do not make one unit
cover 90% of the area.
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WEAPONS
• Before you can place any weapons you need to know if you are
going to use your weapons for a FPL or a PDF.
• FPL- You always want an FPL. For you to have an effective FPL
(Final Protective Line) you must have 3 things; interlocking fire,
grazing fire, and flanking fire. If you can not get any of these you
cannot use the weapon for an FPL. Using your weapon as an FPL
does not mean that the weapon will pointing in a certain direction the
entire time. You will have free movement with the weapon until the
order comes down for all weapons to go to their FPL. This is
generally done during a FPF (Final Protective Fire).
• PDF- If you cannot get an FPL you have to use a PDF (Principle
Direction of Fire). Your best PDF’s are your avenues of approach.
Any area you think that an enemy can come at you from is a good
PDF. Once again like a FPL you will not aim your weapon at your
PDF the entire time. It is just a aiming point that you can go to when
needed. You will not put grazing fire on a PDF.
PDF
FPL W/ GRAZING FIRE
WEAPONS
• There are weapons in our TOA that can only be used as
a PDF. Only direct fire weapons can be used as FPL’s.
• The M2 can be used as a FPL, but it is more effective if
you use it as a PDF. The reason is that the M2 is made
to stop vehicles. Vehicles usually only come through
avenues of approach.
• Great PDF’s are trails, breaks in the tree lines, bridges,
buildings, and chocking points. Chocking points are
places where people or vehicles have to slow down to
pass through. This would be a bend in the road or a
narrow lane.
WEAPONS
• Your next step is to place your crew serve weapons.
• When you place your weapons you must remember the
distances and uses for each weapon.
• The M240B is manly used as a FPL while your M2 is
used for a PDF.
• When you draw your symbols for fire plan use the
correct symbol for the weapon you are using and the unit
markings. Do not make up your own symbols. It will
look like you do not know what you are doing.
• Remember that your grazing fire for all direct fire
weapons never extends farther than 700-800 meters and
your interlocking fire is about 200 meters in front of you
lines.
WEAPONS
• Your weapon distances do matter. Draw
distance of your weapon to its maximum
effective range.
– M240B 1100 meters
– M2 1800 meters
– MK19 2200 meters
• Remember that your grazing fire is only going to
extend to 700-800 meters. If there is a ditch or
stream in your way you will loose grazing fire.
700 M
1100 M
WEAPONS (cont)
• Your interlocking fire does not have to follow
your lateral limits. Lateral limits are only there to
show you how much area you are responsible
for.
• You want your weapons to protect your entire
fire team, squad, platoon, company, or battalion.
• If you are using your weapons for a PDF then
you want to try and cover all avenues of
approach.
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WIRE
• After your weapons are set you need to place your wire.
• There are three different types of wire, protective, tactical, and
supplementary.
• Your protective wire is used as a last defense. It is located about 50
meters from your fighting positions. 50 meters is the average
throwing distance of adult male with a hand grenade.
• Tactical wire is used to funnel enemy troops in to your gun fire. It is
located up to 200 meters in front of your fighting positions.
• Supplementary wire is used to confuse the enemy. Once placed
around your tactical wire it will look like there is no rime or reason to
your defenses. Without the supplementary wire the enemy would be
able to determine that it is not a good idea to walk down into your
wire. Supplementary wire is randomly place and it is not restrictive.
You want the enemy to be easily able to walk around it.
PROTECTIVE
TACTICAL
SUPPLEMENTARY
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X=X=X
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X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
X=X=X
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
X=X=X
X=X=X
CLOSER LOOK
500
SUPLEMENTARY WIRE
200
200 M
100
TACTICAL
WIRE
PROTECTIVE
WIRE
0
50 M
JUST WIRE
500
INTERLOCKING FIRE
W/ OTHER UNITS
100
0
500
100
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INTERLOCKING WIRE
W/ OTHER UNITS
M22
• You already have your main information on the fire plan, but you are
not done until you place a few more items.
• M22. Your M22 system is made up of the M88 CBR detection unit,
the M42 alarm unit, and 400 meters of WD-1 wire. On your fire plan
you only need to show the placement of the M88, but you need to be
able to explain the whole system.
• You are able to attach 5-M42 alarms to the M88. You can use less
but 5 is the maximum. Also you only have 400 meters of wire to
attach to the M42’s. This means that if you only have one M42 you
can place it 400 meters from the M88. If you have more than 1-M42
your combined length of wire to all other alarms cannot exceed 400
meters.
• Generally you only place your M88 150 meters out in front of your
lines. This leaves room for your M42’s to be place in or near fighting
position.
M22
• In the case that you need more than one M88 you would place it 300
meters away from any other M88.
• You do not place M88’s all the way around your camp. At the max
main body will get 2-M88’s and each other element that mounts out
will get 1. There are less than 10-M88’s in each battalion.
• M88’s are always place down wind and are relocated when directed.
• The message that comes out to tell you when you move your M88’s
is call the CDM (Chemical Downwind Message). This message
comes out every 6 hours and it is broken down into 2 hour intervals.
This means that it will tell you what direction the wind direction every
2 hours.
500
WIND
DIRECTION
200
88
100
150 M
PROTECTIVE
WIRE
0
LP/OP
• Listen posts and observation posts are different
only in what time of day or night they are
currently in. If you have a post during the day it
is an observation post and if it is night it is a
listening post.
• These post should be located no farther out than
150 meters so that the person manning the post
can run back without have to set a pace.
LP/OP
(CONT)
• Communication to the post is a big concern. It is up to you to
determine what means of communication you will use. Giving
the person a TA-1 to communicate has its pros and cons. It can
be put in quiet mode and you never have to worry about
batteries. The problem with it is if an enemy runs across your
WD1 wire and decides to follow it, it will lead him to you LP/OP.
Giving the LP/OP a radio has its advantages and disadvantages
also. With a radio there is no wire to be found and it can be
taken back to camp at the end of each shift. The disadvantages
with it is that if an enemy unit comes across your LP/OP there is
really no one to stop them from taking one of your encrypted
radios.
• Post should be hidden from site. A great spot for them would be
in a small section of woods adjacent to your positions so that no
one can try and sneak into your lines in between your company
and the next.
500
WIND
DIRECTION
200
88
OP
100
150 M
150 M
PROTECTIVE
WIRE
0
Claymore Mines
• Claymores are very easy to place. They are used as a
last resort weapon. You are very limited in your
placement of them. You have 100 ft (35 meters) of wire
to use for this system. This means that they will
probably be placed inside your wire.
• This weapon fires double ought buckshot up to 6 ft high
and at a 60 degree angle. It has a kill radius of 50
meters and a maximum effective range of 100 meters.
Its back blast is 16 meters, but it is still dangerous up to
100 meters. If you are paying attention you have just
realized that the back blast radius is longer than the
length of wire that is given for this weapon. This is why
you set it off from you fighting position.
500
WIND
DIRECTION
200
88
OP
100
150 M
150 M
PROTECTIVE
WIRE
0
35 M
35 M
FIRE SUPPORT
• Your final objective before you are done with your fire
plan is to use your fire support.
• There are two types of fire support that you have at your
beck and call.
– Point targets
– Linear targets
• Point targets are firing points that can be destroyed by
one artillery round, missile, etc…
• Linear targets are targets that are in a straight line.
When fired, the weapons will fire on a line. On other
occasions they will direct there fire so that the rounds
land in a certain area rather than in a line. An example
of another arrangement of fire is the lazy w. This is fired
when the observer says “Fire for Effect”.
AREA TARGET
ONE ROUND
LINEAR TARGETS
ALL ROUNDS FIRED IN A LINE
LINEAR TARGET IN AREA FORMATION
ALL ROUNDS FIRED IN ONE AREA
(LAZY W)
EXPLOSION
(DO NOT DRAW ON FIREPLAN)
FIRE SUPPORT
• As for labeling your targets, you will be
responsible for submitting your targets to
the higher. Once higher approves your
targets they will assign them a target
number using two letters and three
numbers. Example: AB001
• Make sure that you are paying attention to
your SMEAC. It will tell you if you have
fire support from adjacent units.
PRACTICE
• Now it is your turn to practice what you
have learned.
• Draw a fire plan on the sketch on the next
slide.
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QUESTIONS?