Evolution of Fire Support Doctrine was Driven by Airmobile Doctrine and New Weapon Systems During the Vietnam War

<p>After the Korean War development of the helicopter as a transportation and weapons system capability resulted in new doctrine and subsequent organization of the airmobile division. With this came a requirement for new fire support doctrine. Thus the central research question was: What role did fire support provide in the execution of airmobile doctrine along with the new weapons systems onto the battlefields of Vietnam? To understand how fire support doctrine evolved this thesis addresses three subordinate questions. First what was the current fire support doctrine prior to the Vietnam War? Second how fire support doctrine evolved in supporting airmobile combat operations on the Vietnam battlefield? The final effort centered on determining how these changes in fire support doctrine influenced future fire support doctrine. Two realizations were noteworthy. First fire support doctrine changed very little from the end of World War II to the end of the Korean conflict. Secondly operational tempo and reach of airmobile operations coupled with new weapons significantly influenced changes to fire support doctrine. This thesis demonstrates how fire support doctrine evolved to meet the new challenges of supporting combat operations on a nonlinear and noncontiguous battlefield.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>