Fire power is a military capability to direct force at an enemy. It is not to be confused with the concept of rate of fire which describes cycling of the firing mechanism in a weapon system. The concept is taught as one of the key principles of modern warfare wherein the enemy forces are destroyed or have their will to fight negated by sufficient and preferably overwhelming use of force as a result of combat operations.

Through the ages fire power has come to mean offensive power applied from a distance, as there is an immediate dissonance with the thought of one-on-one close quarters combat. Fire power is thus something which is employed to keep the enemy forces outside such ranges where even having superior numbers he can be defeated in detail or be sapped of his will to continue combat, and thus surrender his forces to the force projecting greater fire power.

The term fire power is also commonly used to describe the collective offensive capabilities of a military force.

History of fire power

The earliest forms of warfare that might be called fire power were the slingers of ancient armies, one notable example being David from the Bible, and archers. Eventually, the feared Huns would employ the composite bow and light cavalry tactics to shower arrows on the enemy forces, a tactic which also appeared in a less mobile form in Britain, with its famed longbowmen, used during the various Anglo-French conflicts collectively known as the Hundred Years' War during the Middle Ages. The Battle of Crécy is often thought of as the beginning of the "age of firepower" in the west, where missile weapons enabled a small force to defeat a numerically superior enemy without the need for single combat. Firepower was later used to dramatic effect in a similar fashion during the Battle of Agincourt.

Later examples

The use of firepower in achieving military objectives became one of several conflicting schools of military thought, or doctrines. The Battle of Vimy Ridge used massed artillery to help win an Allied victory, but dramatic improvements in siege weapon technology had also gone hand in hand with small scale infantry tactics. Operation Desert Storm also relied on massed firepower as did the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, but firepower was integrated with advances in small-unit training.