Firepower is the military capability to direct force at an enemy. It involves the whole range of potentialweapons. The concept is generally taught as one of the three key principles ofmodern warfare wherein the enemy forces are destroyed or have their will to fight negated by sufficient and preferably overwhelming use of force as a result of combat operations.
Through the ages firepower has come to mean offensive power applied from a distance, thus involving ranged weapons as opposed to one-on-oneclose quarters combat.Firepower is thus something employed to keep enemy forces at a range where they can bedefeated in detail or sapped of the will to continue. In the field ofnaval artillery, theweight of a broadside was long used as afigure of merit of awarship's firepower.
The earliest forms ofwarfare that might be calledfirepower were theslingers of ancient armies (a notable example being the biblical story ofDavid), andarchers. Eventually, the fearedHuns employed thecomposite bow and lightcavalry tactics to shower arrows on the enemy forces, a tactic that also appeared in a less mobile form in Britain, with its famedlongbowmen, used during the various Anglo-French conflicts collectively known as theHundred Years' War during theMiddle Ages. TheBattle of Crécy is often thought of as the beginning of the "age of firepower" in the west, where missile weapons enabled a small force to defeat a numerically superior enemy without the need for single combat. Firepower was later used to dramatic effect in a similar fashion during theBattle of Agincourt.
Firepower of military units large and small has steadily increased since the introduction of firearms, with technical improvements that have, with some exceptions, diminished the effectiveness offortification. Such improvements madeclose order formation useless for middle to late 19th century infantry, and the use ofmachine guns early in the 20th stymiedfrontal assaults.Military uniforms changed from gaudy to drab, making soldiers less visible to the increasing firepower. At sea, improvednaval artillery ended the use ofprize crews, andnaval aviation brought an end to heavily armoredbattleships.
The use of firepower in achieving military objectives became one of several conflicting schools of military thought, or doctrines. TheBattle of Vimy Ridge used massed artillery to help win an Allied victory, but dramatic improvements in siege weapon technology had also gone hand in hand withsmall scale infantry tactics.[1]Operation Desert Storm also relied on massed firepower as did the2003 Invasion of Iraq, but firepower was integrated with advances in small-unit training.
Small arms, such as theM249 SAW, have been employed on a squad level to provide an overwhelming volume of fire in relatively close quarters situations (within 100–300 yds). The idea is that a large volume of accuratesuppressive fire will immobilize the enemy, degrading their ability to perform. In addition, grenade launchers such as theM79, and particularly those that can be underslung on an assault rifle, such as theM203 orM320, are used to provide units with a disproportionate amount of firepower. These weapons are useful in situations where a unit is outnumbered and needs to respond immediately with fire superiority, such as in an ambush by forces not similarly equipped.