Artillery weapon that launches explosive projectiles at a range of angles
A
mortar
is today usually a simple, lightweight, man-portable,
muzzle-loaded
cannon
, consisting of a
smooth-bore
(although some models use a
rifled barrel
) metal tube fixed to a base plate (to spread out the
recoil
) with a lightweight
bipod
mount and a
sight
. Mortars are typically used as
indirect fire
weapons for close
fire support
with a variety of ammunition. Historically mortars were heavy
siege artillery
. Mortars launch explosive
shells
(technically called bombs)
[1]
in high-arching
ballistic trajectories
.
History
[
edit
]
Mortars have been used for hundreds of years. The earliest reported use of mortars were in Korea in a 1413 naval battle when Korean gunsmiths developed the
wan'gu
(gourd-shaped mortar) (玩具, 碗口).
[2]
The earliest version of the
wan'gu
dates back to 1407.
[3]
Ch'oe Hae-san
(1380?1443), the son of
Ch'oe Mu-s?n
(1325?1395), is generally credited with inventing the
wan'gu
.
[4]
In the
Ming dynasty
, general
Qi Jiguang
recorded the use of a mini cannon called the
hu dun pao
that was similar to the mortar.
[5]
The first use in
siege warfare
was at the
1453 siege of Constantinople
by
Mehmed the Conqueror
. An Italian account of the
1456 siege of Belgrade
by Giovanni da Tagliacozzo states that the
Ottoman Turks
used seven mortars that fired "stone shots one
Italian mile
high".
[6]
The time of flight of these was apparently long enough that casualties could be avoided by posting observers to give warning of their trajectories.
[7]
Early mortars, such as the
Pumhart von Steyr
, were large and heavy and could not be easily transported. Simply made, these weapons were no more than iron bowls reminiscent of the kitchen and apothecary
mortars
whence they drew their name. An early transportable mortar was invented by Baron
Menno van Coehoorn
in 1701.
[8]
[9]
This mortar fired an exploding shell, which had a
fuse
that was lit by the hot gases when fired. The
Coehorn
mortar gained quick popularity, necessitating a new form of naval ship, the
bomb vessel
. Mortars played a significant role in the Venetian conquest of
Morea
, and in the course of this campaign an
ammunition depot
in the
Parthenon
was blown up. An early use of these more mobile mortars as
field artillery
(rather than
siege artillery
) was by British forces in the suppression of the
Jacobite rising of 1719
at the
Battle of Glen Shiel
. High angle trajectory mortars held a great advantage over standard
field guns
in the rough terrain of the
West Highlands
of Scotland.
The mortar had fallen out of general use in Europe by the
Napoleonic era
, although
Manby Mortars
were widely used on the coast to launch lines to ships in distress, and interest in their use as a weapon was not revived until the beginning of the 20th century. Mortars were heavily used by both sides during the
American Civil War
. At the
Siege of Vicksburg
, General
Ulysses S. Grant
reported making mortars "by taking logs of the toughest wood that could be found, boring them out for 6 or 12 lb (2.7 or 5.4 kg) shells and binding them with strong iron bands. These answered as
Coehorns
, and shells were successfully thrown from them into the trenches of the enemy".
[10]
During the
Russo-Japanese War
, Lieutenant General
Leonid Gobyato
of the
Imperial Russian Army
applied the principles of
indirect fire
from closed firing positions in the field; and with the collaboration of General
Roman Kondratenko
, he designed the first mortar that fired navy shells.
The
German Army
studied the
Siege of Port Arthur
, where heavy artillery had been unable to destroy defensive structures like barbed wire and bunkers. Consequently they developed a short-barrelled rifled muzzle-loading mortar called the
Minenwerfer
. Heavily used during
World War I
, they were made in three sizes: 7.58 cm (2.98 in), 17 cm (6.7 in), and 25 cm (9.8 in).
Types
[
edit
]
Stokes mortar
[
edit
]
It was not until the
Stokes mortar
was devised by Sir
Wilfred Stokes
in 1915 during the First World War that the modern mortar transportable by one person was born. In the conditions of
trench warfare
, there was a great need for a versatile and easily portable weapon that could be manned by troops under cover in the trenches. Stokes' design was initially rejected in June 1915 because it was unable to use existing stocks of British mortar ammunition, and it took the intervention of
David Lloyd George
(at that time
Minister of Munitions
) and Lieutenant Colonel J. C. Matheson of the Trench Warfare Supply Department (who reported to Lloyd George) to expedite manufacture of the Stokes mortar. The weapon proved to be extremely useful in the muddy trenches of the
Western Front
, as a mortar round could be aimed to fall directly into
trenches
, where artillery shells, because of their low angle of flight, could not possibly go.
[11]
The Stokes mortar was a simple muzzle-loaded weapon, consisting of a smoothbore metal tube fixed to a base plate (to absorb recoil) with a lightweight
bipod
mount. When a mortar bomb was dropped into the tube, an impact sensitive
primer
in the base of the bomb would make contact with a firing pin at the base of the tube and detonate, firing the bomb towards the target. The Stokes mortar could fire as many as 25 bombs per minute and had a maximum range of 800 yd (730 m), firing the original cylindrical unstabilised projectile.
[12]
A modified version of the mortar, which fired a modern
fin-stabilised
streamlined
projectile
and had a booster charge for longer range, was developed after World War I;
[13]
this was in effect a new weapon. By World War II, it could fire as many as 30 bombs per minute and had a range of over 2,500 yd (2,300 m) with some shell types.
[14]
The French developed an improved version of the Stokes mortar as the
Brandt Mle 27
, further refined as the
Brandt Mle 31
; this design was widely copied with and without license.
[15]
[16]
[17]
These weapons were the prototypes for all subsequent light mortar developments around the world.
Mortar carrier
[
edit
]
Mortar carriers
are vehicles which carry a mortar as a primary weapon. Numerous vehicles have been used to mount mortars, from
improvised civilian trucks
used by
insurgents
, to modified
infantry fighting vehicles
, such as variants of the
M3 half-track
and
M113 armored personnel carrier
, to vehicles specifically intended to carry a mortar. Simpler vehicles carry a standard infantry mortar while in more complex vehicles the mortar is fully integrated into the vehicle and cannot be dismounted from the vehicle. Mortar carriers cannot be fired while on the move, and some must be dismounted to fire.
There are numerous
armoured fighting vehicles
and even
main battle tanks
that can be equipped with a mortar, either outside or inside of the cabin. The Israeli
Merkava
tank uses a 60 mm (2.4 in) mortar as a secondary armament. The
Russian army
uses the
2S4 Tyulpan
self-propelled 240 mm (9.4 in) heavy mortar which is one of the largest mortars in current use.
Gun-mortars
[
edit
]
Gun-mortars are breech-loaded mortars usually equipped with a
hydraulic recoil mechanism
, and sometimes equipped with an
autoloader
. They are usually mounted on an armoured vehicle and are capable of both
direct fire
and
indirect fire
. The archetypes are the
Brandt Mle CM60A1
and
Brandt 60 mm LR
, which combine features of modern infantry mortars together with those of modern cannon. Such weapons are most commonly smoothbore, firing fin-stabilised rounds, using relatively small propellant charges in comparison to projectile weight. While some have been fitted with rifled barrels, such as the
2S31 Vena
and
2S9 Nona
. They have short barrels in comparison to guns and are much more lightly built than guns of a similar calibre ? all characteristics of infantry mortars. This produces a hybrid weapon capable of engaging area targets with indirect high-angle fire, and also specific targets such as vehicles and bunkers with direct fire. Such hybrids are much heavier and more complicated than infantry mortars, superior to
rocket-propelled grenades
in the anti-armour and
bunker-busting
role, but have a reduced range compared to modern gun-
howitzers
and inferior anti-tank capability compared to modern anti-tank
guided weapons
. However, they do have a niche in, for example, providing a multi-role anti-personnel, anti-armour capability in light mobile formations. Such systems, like the Soviet 120 mm
2S9 Nona
, are mostly self-propelled (although a towed variant exists). The
AMOS
(Advanced Mortar System) is an example of an even more advanced gun mortar system. It uses a 120 mm automatic twin-barrelled, breech-loaded mortar turret, which can be mounted on a variety of armoured vehicles and attack boats. A modern example of a gun-mortar is the
2B9 Vasilek
.
Spigot mortar
[
edit
]
A spigot mortar consists mainly of a solid rod or
spigot
, onto which a hollow tube in the projectile fits?inverting the normal tube-mortar arrangement. At the top of the tube in the projectile, a cavity contains
propellant
, such as
cordite
. There is usually a trigger mechanism built into the base of the spigot, with a long firing pin running up the length of the spigot activating a
primer
inside the projectile and firing the propellant charge. The advantage of a spigot mortar is that the firing unit (baseplate and spigot) is smaller and lighter than a conventional tube mortar of equivalent payload and range. It is also somewhat simpler to manufacture. Further, most spigot mortars have no barrel in the conventional sense, which means ammunition of almost any weight and diameter can be fired from the same mortar.
The disadvantage is that while most mortar bombs have a streamlined shape towards the back that fits a spigot mortar application well, using that space for the spigot mortar tube takes volume and mass away from the payload of the projectile. If a soldier is carrying only a few projectiles, the projectile weight disadvantage is not significant. However, the weight of a large quantity of the heavier and more complex spigot projectiles offsets the weight saved.
A near-silent mortar can operate using the spigot principle. Each round has a close-fitting sliding plug in the tube that fits over the spigot. When the round is fired, the projectile is pushed off the spigot, but before the plug clears the spigot it is caught by a constriction at the base of the tube. This traps the gases from the propelling charge and hence the sound of the firing. After World War II the Belgium Fly-K silent spigot mortar was accepted into French service as the TN-8111.
[18]
[19]
Spigot mortars generally fell out of favour after World War II and were replaced by smaller conventional mortars. Military applications of spigot mortars include:
- The 230 mm (9.1 in) petard mortar used on the
Churchill AVRE
by Britain in World War II.
[20]
- The
320 mm (13 in) Type 98 mortar
used by Japan in World War II to some psychological effect in the battles of
Iwo Jima
and
Okinawa
- The
Blacker Bombard
and
PIAT
anti-tank launchers used by Britain in World War II.
- The
Hedgehog
launcher, used from the deck of a ship, used 24 spigot mortars which fired a diamond pattern of anti-submarine projectiles into the sea ahead of the ship. A sinking projectile detonated if it struck a submarine, and the pattern was such that any submarine partly in the landing zone of the projectiles would be struck one or more times.
Non-military applications include the use of small-calibre spigot mortars to launch lightweight, low-velocity foam dummy targets used for training
retriever
dogs for bird hunting. Simple launchers use a separate small primer cap as the sole propellant (similar or identical to the cartridges used in industrial
nail guns
).
Improvised
[
edit
]
Insurgent groups often use improvised, or "homemade" mortars to attack fortified military installations or terrorise civilians. They are usually constructed from heavy steel piping mounted on a steel frame. These weapons may fire standard mortar rounds, purpose-made shells, repurposed gas cylinders filled with explosives and shrapnel, or any other type of improvised explosive, incendiary or chemical munitions. These were called "
barrack busters
" by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA)
.
Syrian civil war
[
edit
]
Improvised mortars used by insurgents in the
Syrian civil war
are known as
hell cannons
. Observers have noted that they are "wildly inaccurate" and responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths.
[21]
Sri Lankan civil war
[
edit
]
Improvised mortars used in the
Sri Lankan civil war
by the rebel
Tamil Tigers
are known as "Pasilan 2000", also known as a "rocket mortar" or "Arti-mortar" like the 122 mm (4.8 in) cannon, successor to the
Baba mortar
used by the LTTE for ground operations since the 1980s. As Baba mortar rounds contained tar, they caused a fire when they hit the ground.
[22]
The Baba, the prototype mortar, was crude. But with time the weapon has improved.
The Pasilan 2000, the improved version, has been developed with characteristics similar to a rocket launcher. The Pasilan 2000 was a heavy mortar fired from a mobile launcher mounted on a tractor. The shell does not emit constant muzzle flares like
artillery
or MBRL. This is ideal for LTTE's camouflage and conceals attacking style. Once a round is fired, forward observers/spies/civilian spotters can correct the fire. The way the tube is installed is similar to the positioning of rocket pods. The length and calibre of the barrel indicate Pasilan 2000 system has common features to the Chinese made Type 82 130 mm (5.1 in) 30-tube MLRS (introduced by the Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA) in the early 1980s) rather than rail-guided Katyusha variants such as the Qassam Rocket. The warhead weight is 70 kg (150 lb) and it is filled with TNT. It had a range of 15 to 25 km (9.3 to 15.5 mi). The rocket has since then undergone some modifications. The Pasilan 2000 was more lethal than Baba mortar. But it was not heavily used for ground attacks during the
Eelam War IV
.
[23]
[24]
Modern
[
edit
]
Design
[
edit
]
Most modern mortar systems consist of four main components: a barrel, a base plate, a bipod and a sight. Modern mortars normally range in
calibre
from 60 mm (2.36 in) to 120 mm (4.72 in). However, both larger and smaller mortars have been produced. The modern mortar is a muzzle-loaded weapon and relatively simple to operate. It consists of a barrel into which the gunners drop a mortar round. When the round reaches the base of the barrel it hits a fixed
firing pin
that fires the round. The barrel is generally set at an angle of between 45 and 85 degrees (800 to 1500 mils), with the higher angle producing a shorter horizontal trajectory. Some mortars have a moving firing pin, operated by a
lanyard
or
trigger mechanism
.
Ammunition
[
edit
]
Ammunition
for mortars generally comes in two main varieties: fin-stabilised and spin-stabilised. Examples of the former have short fins on their posterior portion, which control the path of the bomb in flight. Spin-stabilised mortar bombs rotate as they travel along and leave the mortar tube, which stabilises them in much the same way as a rifle bullet. Both types of rounds can be either
illumination
(
infrared
or visible illumination),
smoke
,
high explosive
, and training rounds. Mortar bombs are often referred to, incorrectly, as "mortars".
[25]
Operators may fire spin-stabilised rounds from either a smoothbore or a rifled barrel. Rifled mortars are more accurate but slower to load. Since mortars are generally muzzle-loaded, mortar bombs for rifled barrels usually have a pre-engraved band, called an obturator, that engages with the rifling of the barrel. Exceptions to this were the U.S.
M2 4.2-inch mortar
and
M30 mortar
, whose ammunition had a sub-calibre expandable ring that enlarged when fired. This allows the projectile to slide down the barrel freely but grip the rifling when fired. The system resembles the
Minie ball
for muzzle-loading rifles. For extra range, propellant rings (augmentation charges) are attached to the bomb's fins. The rings are usually easy to remove, because they have a major influence on the speed and thus the range of the bomb. Some mortar rounds can be fired without any augmentation charges, e.g., the
81 mm L16 mortar
.
Data for 81 mm L16 mortar
[26]
Charge
|
Muzzle Velocity
m/s (ft/s)
|
Range
m (yd)
|
Primary
|
73 (240)
|
180?520 (200?570)
|
Charge 1
|
110 (360)
|
390?1,120 (430?1,220)
|
Charge 2
|
137 (450)
|
580?1,710 (630?1,870)
|
Charge 3
|
162 (530)
|
780?2,265 (853?2,477)
|
Charge 4
|
195 (640)
|
1,070?3,080 (1,170?3,370)
|
Charge 5
|
224 (730)
|
1,340?3,850 (1,470?4,210)
|
Charge 6
|
250 (820)
|
1,700?4,680 (1,860?5,120)
|
Precision guided
[
edit
]
The
XM395 Precision Guided Mortar Munition (PGMM)
is a 120 mm
guided
mortar round developed by
Alliant Techsystems
.
[27]
Based on Orbital ATK's Precision Guidance Kit for 155 mm artillery projectiles, XM395 combines
GPS
guidance and directional control surfaces into a package that replaces standard fuses, transforming existing 120 mm mortar bodies into precision-guided munitions.
[28]
The XM395 munition consists of a GPS-guided kit fitted to standard 120 mm smoothbore mortar rounds that includes the fitting of a nose and tail subsystem containing the maneuvering parts.
[29]
[30]
The
Strix mortar round
is a Swedish endphase-guided projectile fired from a 120 mm mortar currently manufactured by
Saab Bofors Dynamics
. STRIX is fired like a conventional mortar round. The round contains an
infrared
imaging sensor that it uses to guide itself onto any tank or armoured fighting vehicle in the vicinity where it lands. The seeker is designed to ignore targets that are already burning. Launched from any 120 mm mortar, STRIX has a normal range of up to 4.5 km (2.8 mi). The addition of a special sustainer motor increases the range to 7.5 km (4.7 mi).
The
GMM 120
(
Guided Mortar Munition 120
; known as
Patzmi
; also referred to as
Morty
) is a GPS and/or
laser
-guided mortar munition, which was developed by
Israel Military Industries
.
[31]
[32]
Another Israeli guided mortar is
Iron Sting
, developed by
Elbit
. The Russian
KM-8 Gran
is also laser-guided.
[33]
Compared to long range artillery
[
edit
]
Modern mortars and their ammunition are generally much smaller and lighter than long range
artillery
, such as
field guns
and
howitzers
, which allows light (60 mm (2.4 in)) and medium (81 mm (3.2 in)/82 mm (3.2 in)) mortars to be considered light weapons; i.e. capable of transport by personnel without vehicle assistance.
Mortars are short-range weapons and often more effective than long range artillery for many purposes within their shorter range. In particular, because of its high,
parabolic trajectory
with a near vertical descent, the mortar can land bombs on nearby targets, including those behind obstacles or in
fortifications
, such as light vehicles behind hills or structures, or infantry in
trenches
or
spider holes
. This also makes it possible to launch attacks from positions lower than the target of the attack. (For example, long-range artillery could not shell a target 1 km (0.62 mi) away and 30 m (98 ft) higher, a target easily accessible to a mortar.)
In
trench warfare
, mortars can use
plunging fire
directly into the enemy
trenches
, which is very hard or impossible to accomplish with long range artillery because of its much flatter trajectory. Mortars are also highly effective when used from concealed positions, such as the natural escarpments on hillsides or from woods, especially if
forward observers
are being employed in strategic positions to direct fire, an arrangement where the mortar is in relatively close proximity both to its forward observer and its target, allowing for fire to be quickly and accurately delivered with lethal effect. Mortars suffer from instability when used on snow or soft ground, because the recoil pushes them into the ground or snow unevenly. A
Raschen bag
addresses this problem.
Fin-stabilised mortar bombs do not have to withstand the
rotational forces
placed upon them by rifling or greater pressures, and can therefore carry a higher
payload
in a thinner skin than rifled artillery ammunition. Because of the difference in available volume, a smooth-bore mortar of a given diameter will have a greater explosive yield than a similarly sized artillery shell of a gun or howitzer. For example, a 120 mm mortar bomb has approximately the same explosive capability as a 152 mm/155 mm artillery shell. Also, fin-stabilised munitions fired from a smooth-bore, which do not rely on the spin imparted by a rifled bore for greater accuracy, do not have the drawback of veering in the direction of the spin.
Largest mortars
[
edit
]
From the 17th to the mid-20th century, very heavy, relatively immobile siege mortars were used, of up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) calibre, often made of cast iron and with an outside barrel diameter many times that of the bore diameter. An early example was
Roaring Meg
, with a 15.5 in (390 mm) barrel diameter and firing a 220 lb (100 kg) hollow ball filled with gunpowder and used during the
English Civil War
in 1646.
The largest mortars ever developed were the Belgian "
Monster Mortar
" (24 in (610 mm)) developed by
Henri-Joseph Paixhans
in 1832,
Mallet's Mortar
(36 in (910 mm)) developed by
Robert Mallet
in 1857, and the "
Little David
" ((36 in (910 mm)) developed in the United States for use in World War II. Although the latter two had a calibre of 36 in (910 mm), only the "Monster Mortar" was used in combat (at the
Battle of Antwerp
in 1832).
[34]
The World War II German
Karl-Gerat
was a 60 cm (24 in) mortar and the largest to see combat in modern warfare.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"mortar definition"
.
Oxford Dictionary of English
. Oxford University Press. Archived from
the original
on October 9, 2019
. Retrieved
10 October
2019
.
- ^
Stephen Turnbull (2002).
Siege Weapons of the Far East (2): AD 960?1644
. Osprey Publishing. p. 13.
ISBN
978-1-841-76340-8
.
- ^
"Toys"
.
Culturecontent.com
. Archived from
the original
on 10 October 2017
. Retrieved
19 November
2017
.
- ^
"大碗口"
.
Data.kdata.kr
. Archived from
the original
on 1 December 2017
. Retrieved
19 November
2017
.
- ^
Needham, Joseph
(1987).
Science and Civilisation in China
. Volume 5. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 7. Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic
. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
. p. 313.
ISBN
9780521303583
.
- ^
Gabor Agoston (2005).
Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire
. Cambridge University Press. p. 68.
ISBN
978-0-521-84313-3
.
- ^
Franz Babinger (1992).
Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time
. Princeton University Press. p. 140.
ISBN
978-0-691-01078-6
.
- ^
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Coehoorn, Menno, Baron van"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 40.
- ^
Duffy, Christopher (1985).
The Fortress in the Age of Vauban and Frederick the Great 1660?1789
(2017 ed.). Routledge. p. 65.
ISBN
1138924644
.
- ^
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant
, by Sam Grant, Kindle location 12783,
- ^
naval-military-press.com
[
dead link
]
- ^
"Stokes Mortar - by WL Ruffell"
. Archived from
the original
on 2015-01-15
. Retrieved
2014-07-17
.
- ^
Ruffell
- ^
War Dept. Technical Manual TM9-2005, Volume 3, Ordnance Materiel ? General, Page 17, December 1942
- ^
Chris Bishop (2002).
The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II
. Sterling Publishing Company. p. 202.
ISBN
978-1-58663-762-0
.
Archived
from the original on 2015-03-20
. Retrieved
2016-03-27
.
- ^
"
Brandt mle 27 (Mortier Brandt de 81 mm modele 27)
Infantry Mortar"
.
Militaryfactory.com
.
Archived
from the original on 1 December 2017
. Retrieved
19 November
2017
.
- ^
John Norris (2002).
Infantry Mortars of World War II
. Osprey Publishing. pp. 42?43.
ISBN
978-1-84176-414-6
.
Archived
from the original on 2015-03-20
. Retrieved
2016-03-27
.
- ^
"A Second Wind For The Lightweight Infantry Mortar"
,
thinkdefence.co.uk
, July 19, 2021
- ^
Fly-K mortar systems ? excellent stealth capabilities and tremendous tactical potential
, archived from
the original
on 2023-03-14
- ^
"Tank Hurls Flying Dust Bins and Lays Tracks"
,
Popular Mechanics
, Hearst Magazines, p. 7, December 1944
- ^
Oliver Holmes (December 12, 2014).
"Syrian rebel "hell cannons" kill 300 civilians: monitoring group"
. Reuters.
Yahoo! News
.
Archived
from the original on December 16, 2014
. Retrieved
December 13,
2014
.
- ^
"Forign1"
.
- ^
"Pasilan 2000 used by the LTTE"
.
- ^
"Dossier on LTTE Weapons ? PDF document"
.
- ^
Slough observer:Suspected Second World War mortar exploded in Windsor today, 3 October 2014
. Example of use of the word "mortar" for a mortar bomb
- ^
Hogg, Ian V.:
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ammunition
, p. 126
- ^
"Alliant Techsystems Takes Army Mortar Contract (Again)"
.
Defense Industry Daily
. Dec 7, 2004. Archived from
the original
on 2006-03-18
. Retrieved
2018-06-11
.
- ^
"XM395 Precision Mortar (120mm)"
.
Northrop Grumman
. Archived from
the original
on 2017-09-10
. Retrieved
2018-06-11
.
- ^
Calloway, Audra (29 March 2011).
"Picatinny fields first precision-guided mortars to troops in Afghanistan"
.
Army.mil
.
Archived
from the original on 2016-12-30.
- ^
"XM395: 120 mm Precision Mortar"
(PDF)
.
ATK Advanced Weapon
. ATK
. Retrieved
21 February
2012
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
"GMM 120?120 mm Guided Mortar Munition"
.
Israel Military Industries
.
Archived
from the original on 7 April 2014
. Retrieved
6 April
2014
.
- ^
"Israeli army tests GPS-guided mortar shell"
.
i24news
. Archived from
the original
on 2014-04-07
. Retrieved
6 April
2014
.
- ^
"
"MALAKHIT" AUTOMATED ARTILLERY FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM"
.
KBP Instrument Design Bureau
. Archived from
the original
on 2 November 2019
. Retrieved
8 May
2020
.
- ^
"Largest Mortar"
.
Guinness World Records
. Archived from
the original
on 2006-02-10
. Retrieved
2006-04-04
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Mortars
.