A fire support coordination element (FSCE) is a term used in the US Army to identify an element of military formation or unit organisation in which functions are directly related to positioning weapons and delivering their fire onto targets. The term is most often associated with artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

, but is sometimes used for mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

 fire.

During the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 the element included about five officers and nine enlisted personnel which collected and assessed information provided by the forward observers, field unit liaison officer

Liaison officer

A liaison officer or LNO is a person that liaises between two organizations to communicate and coordinate their activities. Generally, they are used to achieve the best utilization of resources or employment of services of one organization by another. In the military, liaison officers may...

s, AN/TPS-25 surveillance radar section, division artillery air section, visual airborne target locator section, and the AN/MPQ-4 countermortar radar section (one in each direct support battalion).

The duties of fire support coordinator for the division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

 are normally performed by the division artillery commander, who works closely with the G-2 Intelligence

Military intelligence

Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....

section of the division to identify enemy targets.