History Main / TargetSpotter

* Used in a couple ways by the humans in the ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' film series:
** In ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', a communications officer on foot marks a target for an [[GunshipRescue AC-130 Spectre gunship]], which is the first time humans damage a Transformer in the film.

** The older games like ''[[VideoGame/Battlefield1942 1942]]'', ''Vietnam'' or ''2'' sometimes feature a manual system of spotting, where a pair binoculars are issued to certain classes and whatever they mark would appear on your teammates map, but ultimately boils down to team initiative to act on your spotting. Newer games have a universal spotting system where anyone can point at an enemy and mark the target on the HUD for a short period of time, even getting or recieving point bonuses if friendlies gets the kill as a reward for your spot.

** The older games like ''1942'', ''Vietnam'' or ''2'' sometimes feature a manual system of spotting, where a pair binoculars are issued to certain classes and whatever they mark would appear on your teammates map, but ultimately boils down to team initiative to act on your spotting. Newer games have a universal spotting system where anyone can point at an enemy and mark the target on the HUD for a short period of time, even getting or recieving point bonuses if friendlies gets the kill as a reward for your spot.

"Spotting" is a military term for relaying the coordinates of the enemy to an allied unit (usually an artillery battery or a sniper) so it can take them out from a long distance, without putting itself in danger. The spotter is usually a small mobile unit that approaches the enemy hopefully undetected, calls in a shot and moves on--but really, any unit can act as a spotter, given long range backup. A snipers' spotter also has the additional job of guarding the sniper from flanking attacks, something that is a little hard to do when they're currently focused on lining up their shot through a zoom scope.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Foxhole}}'', artillery requires a two-man team, ''partly'' to shove the thing into place. A spotter with binoculars is required to accurately land shells on targets; needing to calculate the range between the target and their location before adjusting for the actual position of the artillery gun.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': At one point when Akira faces an ambush and encirclement consisting of artillery and tank units, the enemy send a pack of MechanicalMonster spotters to find Akira, that had previously been captured and reprogrammed, to do this without risking any of their hunter's lives.
* This is a common role of aerial mages in ''LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil''. One of Tanya's first duties is spotting for an imperial artillery battery.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novels:

* ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'': The Amazon arc pits the 37th against ''Break Carrier'', an Object built around a giant railgun. It can spot its own way over terrain obstacles by firing chaff shells into the atmosphere and bouncing radar signals off of it, then using a two-stage shell to change the projectile's direction in midair.

* In the ending for ''Videogame/{{Metro 2033}}'', Artyom climbs the collapsing Ostankino Tower in Moscow after a [[AfterTheEnd nuclear apocalypse]] in order to use a military laser guidance system to guide tactical nuclear missiles towards the Dark Ones' hive.

* In ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato2199'', ''Yamato'' sends its fighter complement out to find the enemy's base on Pluto while the ship itself hides from a massive laser cannon that uses orbital mirrors to strike almost any location near the planetoid. Once Kodai and his wingman find the weapon, they radio in coordinates that allow ''Yamato'' to bombard it with [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter Type-3 Shells]] over the horizon and confirm its destruction before moving in to suppress the main base.

** This is a feature of every artillery unit in the game. Blind firing reduces their already less-than-stellar accuracy, though the fact that they're more useful as [[KnockBack infantry-dispersal weapons]] means it doesn't matter as much. Special mention should go to the Imperial Guard's Basilisk, which has the highest range of all (there are some maps where ''no'' unit can ever be out of range), and the fact that the Guard has a radar ability that allows them to briefly remove FogOfWar from any point on the map.

* A level two {{perk}} of the Sniper class called "Squadsight" in ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' allows the sniper to target any enemy that any of the Sniper's squadmates sees, as long the Sniper has a direct line of fire (but is not necessarily in visual range). It's largely revered by players as one of the [[GameBreaker single most powerful perks in the game]] as it allows them to stay incredibly useful once they find a good vantage point, especially on [[GeoEffects high ground]]. The ''Enemy Within'' expansion added enemy units that were made counter snipers that sit back are several screens away from teammates and snipe down everything.

* A level two {{perk}} of the Sniper class called "Squadsight" in ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' allows the sniper to target any enemy that any of the Sniper's squadmates sees, as long the Sniper has a direct line of fire (but is not necessarily in visual range). It's largely revered by players as one of the single most powerful perks in the game as it allows them to stay incredibly useful once they find a good vantage point, especially on [[GeoEffects high ground.]]

* In ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'', part of the detachment in charge of [[spoiler:destroying one of the Arsenal Birds with the last remaining Stonehenge turret, a massive turret that was [[VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies originally designed to shoot down asteroid fragments]]]] is a survey team that gathers the intel needed to accurately fire the kill shot. [[spoiler:Unfortunately the survey team gets assassinated, forcing the team in charge of firing the weapon itself to aim the weapon manually with only their eyes and a range table. [[ImprobableAimingSkills They succeed.]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'', part of the detachment in charge of [[spoiler:destroying one of the Arsenal Birds with the last remaining Stonehenge turret, a massive turret that was [[VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies originally designed to shoot down asteroid fragments]]]] is a survey team that gathers the intel needed to accurately fire the kill shot. [[spoiler:Unfortunately the survey team gets assassinated, forcing the team in charge of firing the weapon itself to aim the weapon itself with only their eyes and a range table. [[ImprobableAimingSkills They succeed.]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'', part of the detachment in charge of [[spoiler:destroying one of the Arsenal Birds with the last remaining Stonehenge turret, a massive turret that was [[VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies originally designed to shoot down asteroid fragments]]]] is a survey team that gathers the intel needed to accurately fire the kill shot. [[spoiler:Unfortunately they end up being assassinated, forcing the team in charge of firing the weapon itself to aim the weapon itself with only their eyes and a range table. [[ImprobableAimingSkills They succeed.]]]]

* In ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', has a number of different weapons that can be used to make indirect-fire attacks at a target they don't have line-of-sight to if it can be seen by another friendly unit. These include Long Range Missiles, Mortars, and Artillery.

** Units on low ground cannot see or attack units that are on higher ground, unless a friendly unit with vision of the high ground is present. Flying units or ground units that can traverse cliffs (such as Reapers and Colossi in ''II'') are useful for gaining vision. Since nearly all Terran buildings have built-in rockets that allow them to lift off and fly around, a Terran player can use a lifted building (usually a barracks) as a beefy high ground spotter which can stay alive for a while even if the enemy tries to take it out.

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