04-10-2014, 07:23 PM
Putting mortars in the rifle platoons/squads can be a lot more problematic than you may realize. Having been a mortarman, 60mm section leader, mortar instructor and an 81mm mortar platoon commander, I have a bit of experience with these weapons.
PGM are great tools, in a LW mortar system even more so, but right now they are only being used at the heavy mortar level in the 120mm systems (GPS for US mortars, and I think the Israelis are playing with a laser guided variant). Even though they are Precision guided, the calculations (Think trigonometry) still must put the mortar round in the probable hit area for it to hit the target. It’s not just drop the round and it will hit the target because of the tech.
In the infantry weapons arsenal, it is the only weapon that is not classified as a 'direct fire' weapon. The mortar is designed to be fired from defilade - or 'indirect', and the hang time for the rounds is measured in seconds. While I don't have a Tabular Firing Table (TFT) in front of me, or a wiz wheel, I am almost sure that the shortest time of flight for a 60mm mortar round is about 8 seconds. A lot can happen in 8 seconds....like 80 rounds from a DShK impacting your pos from 1500m away.
So we fire the mortar from defilade to protect it from the direct fire weapons, now you need more than one person in the loop - at a minimum an observer, and more than likely someone running the FDC also. One person can do both, but it is an incredibly rare individual with a lot of training and years of experience. Since it is a high angle of fire weapon, you also have to worry about deconfliction with aircraft and UAVs – mortar round+helo is a baaaaddd thing.
Now we have to look at the weight of the system as well as the ammo. While a M224 60mm mortar (currently used by US forces) can be used in the assault mode with just the barrel and small baseplate (wt about 18 lbs), this method is very unstable and limits the range/changes you can fire. Putting the entire system together (bipod and large baseplate with sites using aiming stakes) you are talking about 47 lbs (new version is about 9lbs lighter but don’t know fielding status). The rounds weigh about 3 ½-4lbs each and can get heavy quick. With a maximum rate of fire of about 30 RPM, you can eat a lot of ammo quickly.
With a maximum range of 3800m and an effective casualty radius of 28m, it is a great area fire weapon, but it is not a POINT weapon, meaning that Laws of War and ROEs look at it differently than rifles, MGs and even hand grenades.
Alright---probably bored you all to tears by now...so I’ll stop.
PGM are great tools, in a LW mortar system even more so, but right now they are only being used at the heavy mortar level in the 120mm systems (GPS for US mortars, and I think the Israelis are playing with a laser guided variant). Even though they are Precision guided, the calculations (Think trigonometry) still must put the mortar round in the probable hit area for it to hit the target. It’s not just drop the round and it will hit the target because of the tech.
In the infantry weapons arsenal, it is the only weapon that is not classified as a 'direct fire' weapon. The mortar is designed to be fired from defilade - or 'indirect', and the hang time for the rounds is measured in seconds. While I don't have a Tabular Firing Table (TFT) in front of me, or a wiz wheel, I am almost sure that the shortest time of flight for a 60mm mortar round is about 8 seconds. A lot can happen in 8 seconds....like 80 rounds from a DShK impacting your pos from 1500m away.
So we fire the mortar from defilade to protect it from the direct fire weapons, now you need more than one person in the loop - at a minimum an observer, and more than likely someone running the FDC also. One person can do both, but it is an incredibly rare individual with a lot of training and years of experience. Since it is a high angle of fire weapon, you also have to worry about deconfliction with aircraft and UAVs – mortar round+helo is a baaaaddd thing.
Now we have to look at the weight of the system as well as the ammo. While a M224 60mm mortar (currently used by US forces) can be used in the assault mode with just the barrel and small baseplate (wt about 18 lbs), this method is very unstable and limits the range/changes you can fire. Putting the entire system together (bipod and large baseplate with sites using aiming stakes) you are talking about 47 lbs (new version is about 9lbs lighter but don’t know fielding status). The rounds weigh about 3 ½-4lbs each and can get heavy quick. With a maximum rate of fire of about 30 RPM, you can eat a lot of ammo quickly.
With a maximum range of 3800m and an effective casualty radius of 28m, it is a great area fire weapon, but it is not a POINT weapon, meaning that Laws of War and ROEs look at it differently than rifles, MGs and even hand grenades.
Alright---probably bored you all to tears by now...so I’ll stop.