text: Chapter 3
  * Locations of possible enemy assembly areas.
  * Locations of enemy indirect fire weapons systems and units.
  * Locations of gaps, assailable flanks, and other enemy weaknesses.
  * Locations of areas for friendly and enemy air assault and parachute assault operations.
  * Locations of enemy air defense gun and missile units and air defense radars.
  * Locations of enemy electromagnetic warfare units.
  * Effects of weather and terrain on current and projected operations.
  * Information related to areas, structures, capabilities, organizations, people, and events (known as
  ASCOPE) about civilians located within the unit’s assigned area.
  * Likely withdrawal routes for enemy forces.
  * Anticipated timetable schedules for the enemy force’s most likely course of action and other
  probable courses of action.
  * Locations of enemy command and control and intelligence nodes, reconnaissance and surveillance
  systems, and the frequencies used by the information systems linking these systems.
  * Locations of enemy sustainment assets.
  * Location of reserves, reserves movement routes, indications of enemy main effort, and indicators
  driving friendly force commander’s decisions.
  3-25. If friendly information collection assets cannot answer the commander’s information requirements,
  units can commit additional internal resources, decide to execute the offense with the current information, or
  request additional information collection support from information to higher echelon and adjacent units.
  3-26. The intelligence preparation of the battlefield process assists the units in the offense with—
  * Identification of key terrain features, and manmade and natural obstacles.
  * Trafficability and cross-country mobility analysis.
  * Line of sight overlays.
  * Situation templates.
  FIRES WARFIGHTING FUNCTION
  3-27. The coordinated use of indirect fires and joint fires enable units to gain and maintain fire superiority
  throughout all offensive actions. Units use various methods and assets to achieve the desired effects on
  targeted enemy forces and thereby enable friendly maneuver. This includes Army indirect systems and joint
  fires.
  Army Fire Support
  3-28. Indirect fire assets provide units with options for gaining and maintaining fire superiority. Fire
  superiority are the dominating fires of one force over another force that permits that force to maneuver
  at a given time and place without prohibitive interference by the other. They use long-range artillery
  systems (both cannon and rocket) along with rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft to engage enemy forces
  throughout the depth of the enemy’s positions.
  3-29. Fire support planning is the continuing process of analyzing, allocating, and scheduling fires. It
  determines how fires are used, what types of targets to attack, what collection assets units use to acquire and
  track those targets, what assets they use to attack targets, and what assets verify effects on these targets. This
  planning does not stop at the objective or the limit of advance. Units give attention to flanks and potential
  enemy hide positions. Coordination among echelon fire cells and the proper use of fire support coordination
  measures are critical to prevent fratricide. Units plan to employ available fires to delay or neutralize
  repositioning enemy forces to include enemy reserves. They also use fires to suppress, neutralize, or destroy
  those enemy forces and systems that can most affect their units’ closure on their objectives. Units establish
  triggers for the initiation, shifting, and lifting of fires based on the mission variables.
  3-30. The fire support coordinator (known as FSCOORD), or chief of fires depending on the echelon,
  integrates fires into the unit’s scheme of maneuver. Fire support coordinators plan the appropriate fire support
  for their unit. These fires can be time or event driven. The fire support coordinator plans fires on known and