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Flanking Manuever with a base of fire

The flanking manuever is one of the most powerful offensive formations in today's medium force arsenals. This formation uses timing, speed and communication to blind-side the enemy force from a hidden venue of approach. Let's look at the above mentioned skills. Notice in the above scenario that the flanking element actually moves back to the left before flanking. This says to the enemy we have three units out there in this fight, only then does the flanker move out to attack. Timing and Speed - The larger base of fire(BOF) is responsible for keeping the focus of the enemy away from the flanking force, this means allowing the enemy to see you (to an extent), to fear your superior rate of fire, and to not create a flanking force of their own. The flanking force needs to be light, fast and stealthy as they go out of their way to approach the enemy from a right angle. If they leave the BOF to shoot it out too long they will lose the advantage, and if they cut into the fight too quickly they could be shot by their own team. Communication - Use of signals, or radios is imperative as the flanking element nears the angle of approach. A quick pre-assigned signal should alert the BOF to shift fire to the opposite side of the flanking elements approach. This is important that the rate of fire not drop as the enemy force will assume a flank attack is coming. A simple shift to the left in this case will allow for the flanking element to advance rapidly while the focus remains on the BOF. Once the BOF sees the flanking element they should cease fire into the kill zone selecting targets of opportunity within the fleeing enemy.