Previous: B-59: Engagement Techniques
B-60. Entails concentrating the effects of a unit’s fire against a specific, identified target such as a vehicle, machine gun bunker, or ATGM position. When leaders direct point fire, all of the unit’s weapons engage the target, firing until it is destroyed or the required time of suppression has expired. Employing converging fires from dispersed positions makes point fire more effective because the target is engaged from multiple directions. The unit may initiate an engagement using point fire against the most dangerous threat, and revert to area fire against other, less threatening point targets.
Note. Use of point fire is fairly rare because a unit seldom encounters a single, clearly identified enemy weapon.
Next: B-61: Area Fire
Go Back To: U.S. Army FM 3-21.8: The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad