120mm Mortars Vehicles

[riflemangundy]

Heard the Army are buying a new batch of vehicles that will pull the new 120mm's ,, also has to carry a crew of six (Not sure if that includes the driver tho)Looks like things are on the up for the DROP SHORTS

[Goldie fish]

6+1=7

Any 7 seat 4x4 then.

[Archimedes]

Heard that the transport budget got chopped and that there is now no money for them.

[DeV]

Did they not get rid of the 120s?

[Archimedes]

They replaced the old ones with Ruag M87s from Switzerland.
The were fired by the first instructor course in the glen last thursday.

btw; the vehicles that they were looking at were crew cabs that would have seated 5 and taken all of the crews gear in the back.
The driver would be one of the six on the crew.
Another member of the crew would normally travel ahead with the recce party.

[paul]

there ment to be some form of pick-up, so they the gear could be just pilled on the back, forget the make though.

edit:
there ford f something something

[fred the red]

They replaced the old ones with Ruag M87s from Switzerland.
The were fired by the first instructor course in the glen last thursday.

btw; the vehicles that they were looking at were crew cabs that would have seated 5 and taken all of the crews gear in the back.
The driver would be one of the six on the crew.
Another member of the crew would normally travel ahead with the recce party.

Are all the eighty ones being replaced.

[Barry]

Are all the eighty ones being replaced.

No - 81s are an infantry weapon.

[paul]

Old 120mm are gone and have been replaced with "new" second hand 120mm, doesn't matter though, still blows s**t up

[Archimedes]

The pdf regiments will continue to hang onto the 81s for the time being. The rdf regiments never had their own 81s anyway.

There are also 81mm insert barrels that fit into the new 120s. This allows a battery to train and deploy as if they were using 120s but save a bit of money for the tax-payers by firing the cheaper 81mm ammunition.

The difference between an 81 round going off versus a 120 is very impressive. Looking at the numbers, you might think that the 120 is only 50% bigger. If you compare the amount of tnt though, a 120 round holds 3kg versus 0.75kg for an 81. Large chunks of the ground are thrown into the sky. When the rounds are set for airburst, the effect is even more impressive.

[Goldie fish]

Fekin dropshorts taking over an AFV and vehicle thread with their talk about "guns"......

grumble..

[mowaghead]

heard they MAY be going into mowags??

[paul]

heard they MAY be going into mowags??

no, they were thinking about it but like all things that plan was scraped so they just got towed ones

[Archimedes]

It wasn't an either/or situation.
Bighorn could still happen in limited numbers.
It would have obvious benefits for deployment overseas.
The fact that it would use a Mowag platform makes it very attractive as regards spares/maintainance etc.

[California Tanker]

There are also 81mm insert barrels that fit into the new 120s. This allows a battery to train and deploy as if they were using 120s but save a bit of money for the tax-payers by firing the cheaper 81mm ammunition.

We're actually turning in our 81 sleeves in my unit. Yes, it's cheaper to shoot per round, but it's just another item to keep in the logistical inventory. The main reason it was kept was so that if we were doing an assault or some such, the 81mm has a smaller danger area so your troops can get closer before you have to turn off the mortars. Start with the 120s, then turn to 81s. With the accuracy of the later 120mm mortar systems, and thus a reduction in risk estimate distances it's been decided that we just don't need the extra hassle of lugging more stuff around in multiple calibres, taking up room that could be used by 120mm rounds.

NTM