Shoot-and-scoot (alternatively, fire-and-displace or fire-and-move) is an

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

tactic Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to: * Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks ** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield ** Chess tactics ** Political tacti ...

of firing at a target and then immediately moving away from the location from where the shots were fired to avoid

counter-battery fire Counter-battery fire (sometimes called counter-fire) is a battlefield tactic employed to defeat the enemy's indirect fire elements ( multiple rocket launchers, artillery and mortars), including their target acquisition, as well as their command ...

, ''e.g.'', from enemy artillery.

Caucasian War

The first recorded use of this tactic came from the

Caucasian War The Caucasian War () or the Caucasus War was a 19th-century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It consisted of a series o ...

where the Chechen Naib

Talkhig of Shali Talkhig of Shali was a 19th-century commander from the Northern Caucuses. A native of Shali, Chechen Republic, Shali and a representative of the teip, taip Kurchaloy, he was a military leader and statesman of the Caucasian Imamate, North Caucasian ...

became famous for his shoot-and-scoot tactics, termed nomadic artillery by Russians, in the 1830-1850s. According to the Russian historian and professor Nikolay Smirnov, he was one of the first commanders to use this tactic.

World War II

The need for such tactics in World War II became obvious from the noticeable smoke signature produced by the use of anti-tank infantry weapons such as the German

Panzerfaust The (, or , plural: ) was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light anti-tank weapons based on a pre-loaded disposable laun ...

anti-tank grenade launcher, the American

M1 bazooka The Bazooka () is a man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the "stovepipe", the innovative Bazooka was among the first generatio ...

and its German

Panzerschreck ''Panzerschreck'' ( "tank's dread" or "tank's bane") was the popular name for the ''Raketenpanzerbüchse'' 54 ("Rocket Anti-armor Rifle Model 54", abbreviated to RPzB 54), an 88 mm reusable anti-tank rocket launcher developed by Nazi Germa ...

derivative anti-tank rocket launchers, and also by the various models of

Nebelwerfer The () was a World War II Nazi Germany, German series of weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the German Army (Wehrmacht), Army's . Initially, two different mortars were fielded before they were replaced by a variety of roc ...

and Wurfrahmen 40 German barrage rocket systems. In modern times, moving after firing is important, as there are a multitude of electronic systems, such as

counter-battery radar A counter-battery radar or weapon tracking radar is a radar system that detects artillery projectiles fired by one or more guns, howitzers, Mortar (weapon), mortars or rocket launchers and, from their trajectories, locates the position on the g ...

that can automatically detect artillery fire in near real-time and direct

from friendly artillery.

Rocket launcher

Shoot and scoot was originally made possible and used by Soviet

Katyusha Katyusha () is a diminutive of the Russian name Ekaterina or Yekaterina, the Russian form of Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in c ...

rocket artillery, whose rudimentary construction of rails on a truck chassis made it comparatively light and mobile, while its quick 7-10 second full salvo, slow reload, and complete lack of protection made switching positions its main tactic and best defence.

NATO

Shoot and scoot tactics were first adopted by NATO in the early 1960s by its nuclear artillery units using towed 8-inch

howitzers The howitzer () is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. It is capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar, given the distinction between low and high angle fire break ...

and truck-mounted

MGR-1 Honest John The MGR-1 Honest John rocket was the first nuclear weapon, nuclear-capable surface-to-surface rocket in the United States arsenal.The first nuclear-authorized ''guided'' missile was the MGM-5 Corporal. Originally designated Artillery Rocket XM31 ...

rockets. These operated as single guns or launchers, typically deployed to a hide, came into action when given a nuclear fire mission, fired and immediately came out of action and moved to another hide adjacent to another firing position. These tactics became normal for missile units worldwide and were successfully used by Iraqi missile units in the 1990–1991

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

M270

Similar tactics were adopted by

M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System The M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (M270 MLRS) is an American armored self-propelled multiple launch rocket system. The U.S. Army variant of the M270 is based on the chassis of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The first M270s were delivere ...

(MLRS) platoons when it entered service, although in this case the launchers usually went first to a reload site after firing. It may be used by Indian Pinaka MBRL or

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n Grad, Uragan, and Smerch, although originally systems like Grad used more traditional tactics.

Self-propelled gun batteries

The tactic has also been adapted for more general use with

self-propelled gun Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled mo ...

batteries (such as the US

M109 Paladin The M109 is an American 155 mm turreted self-propelled howitzer, first introduced in the early 1960s to replace the M44 and M52. It has been upgraded a number of times, most recently to the M109A7. The M109 family is the most common Western ...

or German

PzH2000 The Panzerhaubitze 2000 (), meaning "armoured howitzer 2000" and abbreviated PzH 2000, is a German 155 mm self-propelled howitzer developed by KNDS Deutschland (formerly Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW)) and Rheinmetall in the 1980s and 1990s for th ...

AS-90

A refined version are gun manoeuvre areas developed by UK for use by

AS-90 The AS-90 ("Artillery System for the 1990s"), known officially as Gun Equipment 155 mm L131, is an armoured self-propelled artillery formerly used by the British Army and subsequently donated for use by Ukrainian Army. It can fire standa ...

batteries when the counter-battery threat is high. These areas cover several square kilometres and the guns move around in them in pairs. The difficult decision is deciding how long guns can remain in one place before moving. This requires judgement about the enemy's counter-battery responsiveness. In these areas, the battery's command elements remain in one place and there are various options for replenishing the guns' on-board ammunition. The tactic is affected by the rate of fire of the manoeuvring guns and the time it takes them to come out of action. However, it is also very wearing on the gun crews and for sustained use relief crews are essential.

G6 Howitzer

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...

G6 Howitzer The G6, sometimes denoted as the G6 ''Rhino'', is a South African self-propelled howitzer. It was developed as a turreted, self-propelled variant of the G5 howitzer series, mating the gun to a six-wheeled mine-protected armoured chassis. Des ...

s used the technique very effectively in Angola against Cuban forces in the

Battle of Cuito Cuanavale The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was fought intermittently between 14 August 1987 and 23 March 1988, south and east of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, by the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) and Cuba against South Africa an ...

Ukraine

Trained by the German

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

, the Ukrainians have been using this tactic during the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

, employing S-200

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

systems against Russian

Beriev A-50 The Beriev A-50 (NATO reporting name: Mainstay) is a Soviet-origin airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft that is based on the Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane. Developed to replace the Tupolev Tu-126 "Moss", the A-50 first flew in ...

surveillance aircraft.

References

{{Reflist Maneuver tactics Artillery operation