120 MM Mortar Live Fire

Track mounted 120mm live fire 12 DEC 07, Fort Irwin CA.

SPC Lee Gunner, SPC Tagga Assistant Gunner, SGT Bendel Squad Leader, SPC Taxted Ammo Bearer (and cameraman.)

Three round fire for effect during live fire practice. Notice the distance of the plumes of dust. You can still hear the explosions.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• 120mm
• Mortar
• Army
• Irwin
• 113

[Sharmanultra1]

What are the foam type rings that are on the bottom of the shell that he takes off? Is it just a protective packaging?

[bladewielder19]

@Sharmanultra1 That's the propellant, nitroglycerin I believe. It comes with 4 attached to the fins allowing for 5 different muzzle velocities; charge 4 through 0.

[Spjungen]

I've always wondered how crews aim and acquire targets with mortars, especially when shooting indirectly. I'm guessing they're trained to correlate distance to the target with various angles of elevation, correct?

[survivalkid2452]

no, what they do is they have a team that is nearer the target which then tell them the ajustments to do and then they refire but the motar crews know the rough angles to put the mortar at to get it where they want it but alot of the time the mortar crew never see there target when they are firing.

[bladewielder19]

@survivalkid2452 The gun crew (i.e. the guys you are seeing here) doesn't know crap about adjusting a round on target. Off camera the Fire Direction Center (FDC) is doing all the important math to get the rounds on target. At the time this was shot I was on the gun crew, now I run the FDC. Side note, FDC is run from inside a large enclosed APC leading to the affectionate translation of FDC as Fat, Dry, and Comfortable.

[bladewielder19]

Mortars use two devices to get rounds on target. One is a large board with a move able circle on top called a plotting board, the other is a computer. Both of these devices do calculations to determine the azimuth and elevation of the gun in order to get the round on target. It actually involves a good amount of trig/algebra and can be very accurate if done right.

[SpankTV]

No hurry or anything. Effing POG

[badtxmofo]

you guys suck and your ag sucks really bad. rattles too much and doesnt hold the round deep enough

[MrIntelM]

@bladewielder19

Wait... so he throws nitroglycerin rings on the floor?!

o.O

[MrSword666]

fort irwin sucks, i was an 11-C in a mech unit and our live fire got shut down out there. besides it blows out in the middle of the desert. the tracks hauled ass though.

[micelli1974]

I did 81 mm for a few years pretty cool to blow shit up!!

[FelchBelcher]

@tylah97 Not really a whistle, more like a whoosh. Some are even tone & some wobble because they don't always fly straight and even. I have had two go over my position and definitely heard them. They landed ~1/4 mile away (BTW 'friendly fire' but they knew we were there, they just had to get that close.

[segarza]

@bladewielder19 I think you meant to say nitrocellulose. N.G. (a liquid) would be suicide.

[airsoftjunkie2]

SPLASH over 

[Krandolph17]

@tylah97 I was never on that end, but from what I understand they do make a sound but its more like a buzzing or an insects wings but louder, I imagine most people to have heard it probably aren't around to tell the story.

[Krandolph17]

@Spjungen Trigonometry. unless its a 60 mm, in which case you can remove the bipod, and there is a handle with a trigger at the base of the tube with a curved elevation-o-meter (?) and a setting so that the round doesnt fire when reaching the bottom of the tube, you the grab the tube around the top and use your thumb to gauge traverse (side to side) and the meter on the handle for elevetion, then squeeze trigger, this is used for line of site firing.