Plan a Live-Fire Range on the Map (Training Aid)

Tutorial 13 of 17 · Intermediate · 20 min

Sketch a live-fire range for a briefing: a firing position, a ring for its reach, a Safety Distance Zone in the direction of fire, and a measurement to check distances and bearings.

You need

map.army open in a current desktop browser and about 20 minutes. You should know how to place a symbol; Make a war map shows how. Pick any stretch of open country: this tutorial uses fields near Marthalen, Switzerland, for a fictional Training Area ALPHA. There is no range there.

Hint: Training aid only. This tutorial draws schematic default values. map.army does not replace your range regulations, and nothing drawn here is an approved safety zone. Real danger areas are set by your regulations and your range authority.

Step 1: Place the firing position and its range ring

map.army MSS Symbol Search with 'range fan' typed in and 'Weapons / Radar Range Fans, Circular' marked
  1. In the Layers panel, click Open Layer-Manager, then New MilX Layer, and rename the new layer Training Area ALPHA. Close the Layer-Manager and click the layer’s name in the Layers list: a pencil icon marks it as the active layer.
  2. Click +, switch to MSS Symbol Search, search for infantry and click Infantry. Close the panel, then click the map. The symbol is your firing position.
  3. Click + again, search for range fan and click Weapons / Radar Range Fans, Circular. Close the panel and click the infantry symbol: the ring centres on it.
Selected range ring around the firing position on the map.army map with its purple radius handle marked

The ring’s first size depends on the zoom. Drag the purple handle on the ring to set its radius, or type it in the Radius field of the point list (View and edit graphic’s coordinates in the toolbar). Press Space to finish.

Step 2: Add a Safety Distance Zone

map.army point list of the firing position with the 'Safety Distance Zone' checkbox marked and its zone settings

A Safety Distance Zone is the app’s name for what range doctrine calls the surface danger zone (SDZ): the ground that must be clear while you fire. It belongs to an ordinary one-point symbol, not to the range ring.

  1. Select the infantry symbol and open the point list with View and edit graphic’s coordinates.
  2. Type 45 in Direction and press Enter: the direction of fire, in degrees from north. The symbol turns to face it.
  3. Tick Safety Distance Zone. Leave Saved Type on Custom….

The defaults are Angle (°) 12, Distance (m) 1000 and Vertical Hazard (m) 300, drawn as an orange sector with a red outline towards north-east.

Hint: Do not press Esc while a list in the point list is open: it closes the list, deselects the symbol and closes the point list too. Close a list by picking an entry.

Step 3: Show the ricochet area

Safety Distance Zone pointing north-east from the firing position on the map.army map, with the ricochet area at its sides

Rounds can glance off the ground and leave the sector at an angle. Tick Ricochet Area in the point list. Four values appear, again schematic defaults: Length (m) 700, Area (m) 100, Start Angle (°) 25 and End Angle (°) 45. The zone gains a band on each side of its base.

Step 4: Keep the zone as a Saved Type

Saved Type list in the map.army point list with the new entry 'ALPHA default' marked

Saved Types is the library of zone settings in the Saved Type list. Save your values once and reuse them on every firing position.

  1. Expand Edit Saved Types: and type ALPHA default in Type.
  2. Click Add to the Saved Types. The entry joins the Saved Type list and is selected.
  3. Click Export Saved Types to a File. map.army saves SDZ_SavedTypes.json; a colleague loads it with Import Saved Types from a File.
Hint: The list also holds examples named after weapons, such as M4 (5.56 mm) and M2 (.50 caliber). They are not values approved for your range. Enter the values your regulations give and store them under your own name.

Step 5: Check distances and bearings

'Measure Tools' under 'Map Tools' in the map.army Options panel
  1. Click Options and tick Measure Tools under Map Tools. Two buttons appear at the bottom left of the map.
  2. Click Measure distance on the map, then click the firing position and the tip of the zone.
Distance measurement along the zone on the map.army map with the labels Distance, Bearing and Mag. Bearing

The labels show Distance, Bearing (from true north) and Mag. Bearing (from magnetic north), here about 1 005 m, 45° and 41.3°. Read them before you finish: Esc ends the measurement and removes the line and its labels.

'Angular Unit' set to 'Mil (NATO)' in the map.army Options panel

To read bearings in mils, set Angular Unit under Units of Measure: in the Options to Mil (NATO) and measure again: the same line reads 800mrad, on the 6400-mil circle. Measure area on the map works the same way and shows the Area inside the points you click.

Step 6: Save the range sketch

Training Area ALPHA on the map.army map: firing position, range ring and Safety Distance Zone with ricochet area

In the Layer-Manager, click Save as MilX and download Training Area ALPHA. The zone is saved with the symbol, so it comes back when you load the file or share the layer. Keep SDZ_SavedTypes.json with it if others are to reuse your Saved Type.

Next tutorial

Continue with Terrain analysis with OAKOC. Every control used here is described in Safety Distance Zones, Range rings and Measurement.

Last updated: