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"So, FSO, did we integrate our mortars effectively?".

Article Excerpt
All maneuver units require indirect fires to win battles. Mortar sections and platoons provide the maneuver commander responsive indirect fires in the close fight.

Military history has repeatedly demonstrated the effectiveness of mortars. Their rapid, high-angle fires are invaluable against dug-in enemy troops and targets in defilade that are not vulnerable to attack by direct fires. FM 7-90, Tactical Employment of Mortars states that, by virtue of their organization at both the company and battalion levels, mortars provide valuable and responsive fires that ease the combat tasks of company/troop, battalion/squadron and brigade/regimental commanders. The bottom line--the primary role of the mortars is to provide responsive, indirect fires to the maneuver commander.

Sound good? Well, it isn't happening!

What I see at the National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, California, is rotational units' inability to achieve the mortar effects desired during combined arms operations. I continually see the task force struggle to integrate its mortars properly into the scheme of maneuver even though the mortar platoon leader is encouraged to spend time at the tactical operations center (TOC) during the planning phases of all operations.

Am I implying that the task force commanders, fire support officers (FSOs) and mortar platoon leaders do not know their jobs? Not at all. Through many rotations, I have met some of the most technically and tactically proficient officers and NCOs in the US Army.

So what's the problem? It's not that mortars lack target list worksheets, overlays or fire support execution matrices (FSEMs). For the most part, they each have a specific...

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