searching fire

Thân thiện

A soldier adjusts the mortar's angle to conduct searching fire against the distant hillside.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A specific type of artillery fire: "searching fire" is a military term for a method of artillery or gunfire where the point of aim is systematically adjusted in elevation. This creates a pattern of impacts that spreads along a line, typically to cover a target area more thoroughly or to engage targets at varying ranges.

Usage

• "Searching fire" is used as a technical term in military contexts, particularly in artillery, naval gunfire, or automatic weapons doctrine. It describes a fire distribution technique.

Examples

• Noun:
  • The battery was ordered to lay down a searching fire across the enemy's suspected approach route.
  • Effective use of searching fire can deny the enemy movement along a defile or valley.

Advanced Usage

• The term is often part of a larger fire command or order, specifying the type of fire mission.
• It is contrasted with other fire distribution techniques like "traversing fire" (adjustment in azimuth/horizontal plane) or "fixed fire".

Variants and Related Words

• Traversing fire (n): Fire distributed in width by successive changes in the direction of the gun.
• Fixed fire (n): Fire delivered on a point target without change in gun direction or elevation.
• Search (v): In a general sense, to look carefully. In a military/gunnery sense, it can mean to adjust fire to find the target.

Synonyms

• Creeping fire (context-dependent, can be similar)
• Ladder fire (a similar concept often used in naval contexts)

Related Phrases

• Fire for effect: The main barrage of fire delivered after adjusting onto the target, which may include searching fire as a method.
• Adjust fire: The initial process of correcting aim, which may precede ordering a searching fire pattern.

Học thuật

Noun

1. fire distributed in depth by successive changes in the elevation of the gun