Spotting for artillery
How to give a gunner something they can act on: a target, then corrections in metres.
Two jobs
An artillery crew is two jobs. The gunner stays with the gun and touches nothing but azimuth and elevation. The spotter has eyes on the target and calls what the gunner cannot see. Both indirect-fire platforms work this way: the SPH-2 howitzer, a three-crew vehicle bought at HQ, and the L81 mortar, which you build at a forward operating base and which turns the FOB's ammo supply into shells. Ranges and elevation limits for both are on our artillery page.
Calling the first target
The gunner needs an azimuth (a compass bearing from gun to target, 0 north, 90 east) and a distance in metres; from those comes an elevation in mils. A rangefinder gives you distance directly. Binoculars and the monocular do not show metres, though looking through any of them at an enemy for a second or two tags them for your team and pays you. Press M for the tactical map and X to recenter it on yourself; the map is where you and the gunner agree on where the target actually is.
The sources do not give a fixed format for the first call. Give the gunner a place they can find on the map, the distance you read, and what is there. Then stop talking until the first round lands.
Left, right, short, long
Corrections use four words and a distance, measured from where you are looking: left, right, short or long, in metres. "Fifty short" means the round landed 50 m on your side of the target. "Twenty right" means it landed 20 m to the right of it as you see it. "You missed" is not a correction. Round the distance off; the guns scatter by roughly 8 to 10 m at range, so precision below that is wasted.
| You call | The round landed | Gunner adjusts |
|---|---|---|
| "50 short" | 50 m on your side of the target | Adds range |
| "50 long" | 50 m past the target | Takes range off |
| "20 left" | 20 m left of the target, as you see it | Traverses right |
| "20 right" | 20 m right of the target, as you see it | Traverses left |
The last column assumes the gun is roughly behind you. A gun off to your side will read some of your "short" as its "left", so tell the gunner where you are watching from.
Range with one shot
Fire one round, not a salvo. Watch where it lands, not whether it hit. Correct in metres. Then fire for effect. A salvo that misses spends the FOB's ammo and tells the target to move; a single ranging round costs one correction.
Low arc or high arc
The SPH-2 has two arcs. Low arc keeps the shell in the air for less time, so it is the choice for anything that might move. High arc lobs the shell up and drops it steeply, for targets behind a hill or a building. The catch: the low arc does not reach inside about 1,181 m, so a target at 900 m has to be lobbed. The L81 fires high only. If the target is moving or under cover, say so; the gunner may be able to see neither.
The firing tables the community uses are measurements, not published data, and the mortar's range in particular is disputed. Expect the numbers on our artillery page to move after patches.