Suppressive fire

In military science, suppressive fire is "fire that degrades the performance of an enemy force below the level needed to fulfill its mission". When used to protect exposed friendly troops advancing on the battlefield, it is commonly called covering fire. Suppression is usually only effective for the duration of the fire. It is one of three types of fire support, which is defined by NATO as "the application of fire, coordinated with the maneuver of forces, to destroy, neutralise or suppress the enemy".

Before NATO defined the term, the British and Commonwealth armies generally used "neutralisation" with the same definition as suppression. NATO now defines neutralisation as "fire delivered to render a target temporarily ineffective or unusable".

Usage

Suppressive fire usually achieves its effect by threatening casualties to individuals who expose themselves to it, forcing them to inactivity and ineffectiveness by keeping their heads down, 'or else take a bullet'. Willingness to expose themselves varies depending on the morale, motivation and leadership of the target troops. Suppressive fire is often used as covering fire, defined by NATO as "Fire used to protect troops when they are within range of enemy small arms." This is sometimes called "winning the firefight" in an infantry-only action. However, suppressive fire may be used against indirect firers, enemy air defenses or other military activities such as construction work or logistic activities, or to deny an area to the enemy for a short period of time (it is unsuitable for prolonged area denial due to ammunition supply constraints).