Nine minutes of drone footage recorded by a Ukrainian drone captures an assault against Ukrainian positions by a platoon of Russian infantrymen. The Ukrainians utilize danger-close artillery and small arms fire to repel the assault.

The drone in this video makes the distance of the gunfight slightly skewed. What you're looking at is a close range firefight between an assaulting platoon of Russian troops and a defending squad of entrenched Ukrainian Infantry. The treeline directly to the front of the Russian positions contains the entrenched positions of Ukrainian troops, and the artillery is landing about 50 meters in front of their positions.

This video is a textbook definition of danger-close artillery support, and it's a great example of why leaders need to utilize pre-registered on-call targets with their indirect fires in conjunction with their defense's fire support plan.

A pre-registered on-call target is generally set in place before a defense is dug in. Guns are registered by firing on pre-determined targets to ensure the exact impact site of a round before the round is needed in that location. This gives leadership the ability to call in fire support on those pre-registered on-call target sites at a near cyclic rate without having to worry about the proximity of friendly forces to said on-call targets.

About the Author

Josh Brooks

Josh is an American writer and former USMC machine gunner with eight years of experience in ground combat arms throughout the GWOT. He is currently based in Texas and specializes in combat footage analysis and digital marketing.Follow Josh at OfficialJoshBrooks.com