TC 3-20.31-120, Gunnery: Heavy Tank Tower Prompts

This is the second article covering the changes to the gunnery manual, Train­ing Circular (TC) 3-20.31-120, awaiting publication this fiscal year (FY). This second article discusses the why and how of tower prompts. They are a large portion of each engagement with examples of the tower prompts for each engagement.

With the new engagement layout in­cluding prescriptive target types, pos­tures, range bands, and firing vehicle posture, the gunnery manual can now provide an example script for the Mas­ter Gunner for each engagement that completes three functions:

• Establishes the actions required of the crew to prepare for the engagement.

• A collective fire command following TC 3-20.31-043, Conduct of Fire, October 2024.

• Reinforces the process found in TC 3-20.31-040, Direct Fire Kill Chain.

Figure 1 provides an example within the Heavy Tank gunnery manual for engagement 65, Change of Weapon/Ammunition.

In the preparation for the engagement section, the tower provides the admin­istrative information to the crew. This includes any administrative movement to a battle position or firing box start point, and includes the appropriate battlecarry ammunition type required. For those chemical, biological, radio­logical, and nuclear (CBRN) engage­ments, it will include any masking in­structions.

Once those instructions are acknowl­edged and executed, the tank com­mander should inform the tower they are set by announcing “REDCON ONE,” or readiness condition one. From this point the crew owns the engagement except for catastrophic engine or ther­mal optic failure at no fault of the crew.

The prompt from the crew is provided as an example. Units don’t have to fol­low these examples at all. They are provided to show what is expected as a collective fire command. The admin­istrative information plus the tower prompt’s collective fire command the engagement.

ALERT – the alert element is the no­tional senior leader calling the vehicle.

WEAPON / AMMUNITION – in this ex­ample, the battlecarry information from the administrative commands provided the default ammunition or weapon. In doing so, the weapon / am­munition element is omitted.

TARGET DESCRIPTION – the specific targets in order or priority are de­scribed to the crew. In this example, the troops are the most dangerous of the initial presentation (the first two targets of the four-target presenta­tion).

METHOD – although this may be omit­ted in the fire command, the senior leader elected to define the method of engagement as “MOST DANGEROUS FIRST.” If the crew fires at the least dangerous first it does NOT instigate a crew penalty. The engagement times will automatically penalize a crew for killing a least dangerous target first.

LOCATION – these engagements are prescriptive in nature with a proofed, standardized scenario. The Master Gunner must provide the nearest tar­get reference point, terrain feature or other identifying graphic control mea­sure that orients the crew in the gen­eral direction of the threats during the initial presentation. For gunnery, this is required information provided to the crew to ensure consistency and stan­dardization across all training crews.

RANGE – this is optional to the tower prompt. If the Master Gunner or sce­nario developer deems it necessary for effective training, they must provide the information equally to all crews.

CONTROLS – generally, this is a stan­dard statement where the tank commander is required to positively identify the threat prior to issuing the command of execution. This is a fratri­cide prevention and range safety func­tion and not just “phrases to say.”

EXECUTION – the collective fire com­mand permits the crew to engage once the controls are met by announcing the weapons control status for all weapons. In this case, announcing “WEAPONS FREE” has a distinct mean­ing tied to TC 3-20.31-040, Direct Fire Kill Chain, where the target is not pos­itively identified as friendly. This is the second fratricide prevention measure integrated into the tower prompt.

Note – the targets should not be pre­sented (step execution) immediately after the execution, the tower prompt provides some time for the tank com­mander to digest the information and prepare for the engagement. It is fol­lowed by an additional control.

CONTROLS – specifies the actions to take once the Tank Commander deter­mines the desired effects are achieved against the threat. In this example, in­cluding “REPORT WHEN SECTOR CLEAR” serves to remind the crew to check their work. Master Gunners may alter this control for engagement with targets on delay versus engagements without delay targets for clarity.

The tower prompts are a vital compo­nent of each engagement. They estab­lish the conditions of the task at hand, prepare the crews correctly with the appropriate battlecarry information, establish the default firer and weapon / ammunition, describe the initial pre­sentation, and set appropriate controls to the engagement for force protection / fratricide prevention and standardiza­tion of the engagement. It is tied to TC 3-20.31-043, Conduct of Fire, and TC 3-20.31-040, Direct Fire Kill Chain. It serves to reinforce the standards in those publications to build better un­derstanding and provides “what right looks like” during crew training.

FIRE, FIRE SABOT

In the next article, we will discuss Ta­ble C, Complex Engagements, why they are complex, what Master Gunners need to pay attention to, and things the crews need to know to be success­ful at those complex engagements.

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