User Panel
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120mm and Four-deuce "High Angle Hell" Master Race checking in...
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Quoted: Great vid. Where's the propellant in the round? How high do they go in comparison to how far out? The angle they were shooting it looked like 70 degrees or more. Seriously, how do these things work? View Quote There’s a small charge in the base, but most of the range comes from donut-shaped propellant charges that you place on the “stem” or whatever is above the tailfins. More donuts = more range. Mortars (like artillery/howitzers) are fired at 45-90 degrees, as opposed to cannon (like a tank gun, for example), which are fired at 0-45 degrees. This makes mortars & howitzers ideal for supporting fire from behind your units, since they can fire over you (and over cover that the enemy might be behind). So cannon is direct fire, and mortar/howitzer is indirect fire, if that makes sense. (I’m probably not using the correct American technical terms.) |
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Our light infantry rifle companies have a couple of 60mm mortar teams in the company headquarters element. And of course they have the bigger mortars at the battalion level. The Marine Corps is still a heavy believer in mortars also. So mortars are still very much alive and well in the U.S. military.
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Quoted: I'm not sure that I have heard of any battles from the GWOT where American mortarmen were involved. So does the US still use mortars, or is it all airstrikes, tanks and TOW missiles? View Quote |
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Quoted: Danish army had a 60mm in each infantry platoon, and an 81mm section (3 tubes) in each infantry company. Each battalion would have a 120mm platoon with 3 or 4 tubes. I think the older 120mm tubes have been replaced with some fancy new system these days. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: 60, 81, and 120mm varieties. Mmm hmm love me some portable firepower Now, humping the ammo is another matter entirely Historically, 2-3 60mm tubes at the (light) infantry company level was common, with 4-8 tubes of 81mm at the battalion level. Armored /Mechanized units got 120mm somewhere (sometimes 81mm or 107mm). Depends on what org and what time you look at the MTOE, for US Army, USMC, foreign armies, etc. Danish army had a 60mm in each infantry platoon, and an 81mm section (3 tubes) in each infantry company. Each battalion would have a 120mm platoon with 3 or 4 tubes. I think the older 120mm tubes have been replaced with some fancy new system these days. Now that is interesting. I think the Germans used 81mm at the company level too. Humping that tube and ammo |
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Quoted: There's a small charge in the base, but most of the range comes from donut-shaped propellant charges that you place on the "stem" or whatever is above the tailfins. More donuts = more range. Mortars (like artillery/howitzers) are fired at 45-90 degrees, as opposed to cannon (like a tank gun, for example), which are fired at 0-45 degrees. This makes mortars & howitzers ideal for supporting fire from behind your units, since they can fire over you (and over cover that the enemy might be behind). So cannon is direct fire, and mortar/howitzer is indirect fire, if that makes sense. (I'm probably not using the correct American technical terms.) View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Great vid. Where's the propellant in the round? How high do they go in comparison to how far out? The angle they were shooting it looked like 70 degrees or more. Seriously, how do these things work? There's a small charge in the base, but most of the range comes from donut-shaped propellant charges that you place on the "stem" or whatever is above the tailfins. More donuts = more range. Mortars (like artillery/howitzers) are fired at 45-90 degrees, as opposed to cannon (like a tank gun, for example), which are fired at 0-45 degrees. This makes mortars & howitzers ideal for supporting fire from behind your units, since they can fire over you (and over cover that the enemy might be behind). So cannon is direct fire, and mortar/howitzer is indirect fire, if that makes sense. (I'm probably not using the correct American technical terms.) |
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Hulka Blows Up - Stripes (5/8) Movie CLIP (1981) HD |
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Quoted: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/367483/D85A8322-92A2-4DCC-A39B-715B4D8EF94E-1493584.jpg View Quote Joke was obviously indirect fire. |
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I'm pretty sure we just did a mortar thread, and it had a video over an hour long doing mortar stuff.
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That is true, and is how I almost ended up a mortarman. |
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I was in RC south and our mortar team use to blow shit up quite a bit yes.
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Just watched the new movie called The Outpost. They had mortars, I expected it to be pretty accurate of a movie.
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Quoted: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/367483/D85A8322-92A2-4DCC-A39B-715B4D8EF94E-1493584.jpg View Quote That’s a good illustration of a Mortar round. |
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Quoted: Mortars are fun ... to shoot, not to carry. There was a moment where I almost got transferred to a heavy mortar platoon, but I managed to avoid it. View Quote No Kidding! As a former mortar maggot I can vouch for fact that humping the tube of an 81mm mortar through the jungles of central America sucked. |
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Quoted: Now that is interesting. I think the Germans used 81mm at the company level too. Humping that tube and ammo View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: 60, 81, and 120mm varieties. Mmm hmm love me some portable firepower Now, humping the ammo is another matter entirely Historically, 2-3 60mm tubes at the (light) infantry company level was common, with 4-8 tubes of 81mm at the battalion level. Armored /Mechanized units got 120mm somewhere (sometimes 81mm or 107mm). Depends on what org and what time you look at the MTOE, for US Army, USMC, foreign armies, etc. Danish army had a 60mm in each infantry platoon, and an 81mm section (3 tubes) in each infantry company. Each battalion would have a 120mm platoon with 3 or 4 tubes. I think the older 120mm tubes have been replaced with some fancy new system these days. Now that is interesting. I think the Germans used 81mm at the company level too. Humping that tube and ammo When Big Army went to the J-Series TO&E, the Mech Infantry Companies lost their organic mortars, then 6x 4.2in/107mm then eventually 6x 120mm track mounted mortars starting around 1995. Both my units in Berlin had unique TO&Es, first tour 89-90 we still had 3x 81mm M125A2 track mounted M29 mortars in the Rifle Company, with 2 Light Infantry Plts and 1 M113A2 Mech Platoon, then 4x 4.2in/107mm M106A2 track mounted mortars in the Combat Support Company. Then again, we still had M67 90mm Recoilless Rifles, M47 Dragons, and M202A1 FLASH Launchers in the Weapons Squads. We also had M109A1 155mm Self Propelled Artillery (Nuclear Capable) in E Battery 320th FA and one Company M1 Tanks (Co F 40th Armor Regt) 2nd tour 92-94, we still had 3x 81mm M252 Mortars in each Rifle Company, each carried in an M1025 HMMWV, then 6x 120mm HMMWV-towed Mortars in the HHC. The E Battery 320th FA exchanged the M109A1 SP 155mm for the Lightweight M102 105mm Towed Howitzers, Co F still kept the M1 Abrams. Mortars are the Rifle Company Commanders' own pocket artillery. You can react quicker, maintain more flexibility without having to constantly clear everything through the Bn Fire Support Officer. Most of the time we were attached to a particular Dismount Plt, then dropped off to the flank, one terrain feature ahead of their objective to provide fire support. Sometimes all 3 Guns were attached to the main effort. Mortars can reach the reverse slopes of hill and mountain terrain. The newer 81mm M800-series and 60mm M700 series HE with the Multi-Option-Proximity Fuse can put frag on enemy attempting to use walls for cover from direct fire and small arms. Used to be, Company Mortars could keep dropping rounds longer in coordination with CAS, the mortars having a much lower Max Ordinate (Max Altitude the round travels to reach a specified range) Nowadays I'm told, everything is weapons tight for some time prior to and after CAS entering the battlespace. |
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Back when I taught mortar gunnery at Ft Benning. FDC procedures at the Infantry Mortar Platoon Course. Just remember: RALS, LARS and Hey Diddle Diddle: far pole in the middle.
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There is a Stryker variant that is a mortar carrier. The gun is built into the Stryker. There are 3 MCVs per infantry company. 120mm rounds.
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Quoted: I'm not sure that I have heard of any battles from the GWOT where American mortarmen were involved. So does the US still use mortars, or is it all airstrikes, tanks and TOW missiles? View Quote LOL wut? There is tons of GWOT combat footage of Eleven Charlies launching mortars on a two way range. |
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Quoted: Our light infantry rifle companies have a couple of 60mm mortar teams in the company headquarters element. And of course they have the bigger mortars at the battalion level. The Marine Corps is still a heavy believer in mortars also. So mortars are still very much alive and well in the U.S. military. View Quote Not just that, but there are many people that want to add more mortar systems. Like some single man portable system you'd give to 1 individual in every squad. It's not without merit; IDF inflicts way more enemy casualties than rifles and machine guns. |
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Every FOB in Iraq that I went to had some sort of mortar capability. When the conditions were right it was great to have those guys immediately returning fire when our base would get attacked with rockets or mortars. We’d run for cover while those guys ran to their mortars hoping they’d get to shoot back.
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Quoted: It was the lack of apothecaries in Malaki’s Iraq that yielded ISIS so much territory in their blitz. History may not impress on future generations the value of a good grinding stone. View Quote This is true but it also needs noted that the only thing which has kept the drug war to such a relatively low level of escalation is that Mexicans never advanced past the molcajete and therefore their indirect fire technology is quite primitive. |
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Quoted: Yeah, OK. Reality is actually the complete opposite, but OK. In fact, as I recall, there have actually been investigations into whether or not the Marine Corps was committing war crimes because of all of the head shots in Iraq, but it turned out that they were just shooting what the enemy presented. But, yeah, no one has heard about American riflemen in the GWOT. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I'm not sure that I have heard of any battles from the GWOT where American riflemen were involved. So does the US still use rifles, or is it all airstrikes, tanks and TOW missiles? Yeah, OK. Reality is actually the complete opposite, but OK. In fact, as I recall, there have actually been investigations into whether or not the Marine Corps was committing war crimes because of all of the head shots in Iraq, but it turned out that they were just shooting what the enemy presented. But, yeah, no one has heard about American riflemen in the GWOT. I'm not surprised. GWOT was - according to the news media - all about American servicemen coming home in a flag draped box. There was a great deal of kerfuffle going on that was conveniently overlooked. |
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Watching that vid and seeing all those WP rounds going downrange, someone had a really bad day.
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Here is a tidbit that not many people know happened in Fallujah:
"A 60 mm or 81 mm white phosphorous mortar round, wrapped three times with detonation cord and a 1/4 or 1/2 stick of C-4. It was used to burn insurgents out of houses. " Had a buddy with 3/5 that told me about this. https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2005/7/1/2005july-marines-share-hardearned-knowledge |
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Mortars are the reason you shoot from the top floor window and not the roof.
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Quoted: Sort of a dumb question honestly. Improvised mortars would have been a better thread http://i.cbc.ca/1.2652677.1400879695!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/syrian-rebels-fire-mortar.jpg View Quote those actually exist? I thought it was something Call of Duty made up. |
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Got to hang some 120's in Syria at some Russians. Good times.
The 120mm and a good crew is by far one of the best weapons to have on your side on the battlefield. |
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Religiously. 60s at the company level, 81a and 120s at the battalion level. Probably the most responsive form of fire support available to maneuver units.
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