Tactically speaking, to be most effective, at a minimum, half your element should be providing accurate, precision suppressive fire. Ideally, it should be more like 2/3 to 3/4 of the element firing, as the maneuver element moves. In his classic work “Infantry Attacks,” Erwin Rommel (arguably, one of the finest tactical thinkers in the history of warfare, and certainly in the last century) describes a number of attacks he led as a young lieutenant in World War One. His assault element was always notably smaller than his suppression element, and the disparity grew as his experience increased. The key however, was that his suppressive fire elements always had their fires directed at SPECIFIC enemy positions on the target. Control and direction of organic fires is certainly one of the most critical key leader tasks, if not THE most critical. You need to know how to direct your subordinates’ fires, as well as where to direct those fires.
If you are going to RESIST, think first, then act.
