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By Root 1432 0

have identified as an antiaircraft missile battery through a high-power binocular system, the arty FO calls for a single round of high explosive—“HE”—to go downrange. Ten miles in the rear, the gun team plugs in the coordinates the FO has passed them, and the M198 tube belches a thundering fireball, loosing a hundred-pound projectile downrange. Seconds later, the round sails past the FiST, and with a bright yellow flash, sends a fountain of desert into the air—about thirty meters from the target. Then the 81 mm mortar team, directed by their FO, barrages another antiaircraft piece; the forward observers for each call back to their respective teams over secure radio networks with “fire adjustments.” After a few more cycles, both the arty and 81 mm mortar rounds hit dead on—the Coyotes make the call that the threat has been neutralized. Now it’s TACAIR’s turn. Two F/A-18s, call sign Smoke-21 and Smoke-11, have been holding at a point about ten miles to the west. The arty FO calls for two final rounds to be fired—illumination rounds. The “illums” burst directly over the target area, each releasing a parachute-slowed chunk of burning phosphorus, marking the “back door” of the suppression package, and laying the welcome mat for the jets at their front door of the assault.

As the infantry speed toward the target—still miles away—the illum rounds slowly drift down toward the target buildings—the forward air controller, or FAC, who goes by the radio call sign Venom-11, gets Smoke-21’s eyes on the target using the burning illum rounds as reference. With both the FAC and the pilot looking at the same piece of ground, the controller passes a nine-line brief—a list of essential information for a close-air-support attack—and then once Smoke-21 confirms he has received the information correctly, Venom utters the phrase all USMC aviators crave hearing, “Smoke-21, you’re cleared-hot.” In this case, Venom has cleared-hot Smoke-21 to drop six five-hundred-pound MK82 “dumb” bombs. Out of the southwest, Smoke-21 dives toward the target—and at around two thousand feet, pulls the roaring aircraft’s nose up and releases all six. Seconds later, the target erupts in a wall of fire the length of a football field. The Marines of the FiST cheer as the concussive whump-whump-whump echoes throughout the range, and then hustle to work Smoke-11 into the attack—just as the FSCC reports that two AV-8B Harriers are inbound. Four strafing runs and two bomb drops later, the TACAIR components return to base just as the infantry approach the target and prepare to dismount, and the Abrams tanks—considered a direct maneuver element augmenting the infantry and thus not requiring a forward observer—send red-hot 120 mm sabot rounds into the target at thousands of feet per second with deadly accuracy. The 81 mm mortars restart their barrage, then the arty FO calls for a smoke screen to obscure any “enemy” from getting their eyes on the grunts. More 155 mm rounds sail past, followed by a wall of thick white smoke rising from the shells’ points of impact, visibly barricading the target zone. Marine combat engineers, riding in a massive Hercules tank, prepare to clear a notional minefield with one of the Marines’ favorite tools of the warfighting trade, the M58 Mine Clearing Line Charge, or MICLIC. Towed behind the Hercules, once armed, the Marine engineers “button up” the tank, ensuring the hatches of the beast are secured, then let the MICLIC rip. The hiss of a rocket motor directs everyone’s attention to a long “rope” unfurling over the minefield—the rope, 350 feet in length, is made of Composition-4 high explosive; five pounds per foot, for a total of 1,750 pounds. The line of C-4 flops on the ground, then detonates, blasting the Hercules with a concussive shock wave and sending a mushroom cloud of pulverized desert about a thousand feet into the air. In an actual minefield, any explosives would have been obliterated.

With the minefield cleared, the 81 mm mortars shut down as the Marines dismount and prepare to overrun the target complex as AH- 1W and UH-1N attack