Mortar Team Tactics and Weapons 11 Charlie "Hang it!"

I'm excited about today's episode. We're talking about the M224 60 millimeter mortar. It's a portable tube that ground troops carry into battle and fire at a high rate of angle up to 3000 meters away right into the laps of the enemy. In this video, we'll learn about the tactics and weapons employed by mortar teams. What makes them different from other ground forces and where the future of mortar power is going. Hint, it has something to do with computers and robots. Can't wait till they figure out how to strap one on the back of a drone. No, I shouldn't have said that. Gonna give them ideas. In the last few years, major advancements have been made in mortar fire detection, which are game changing for 11 Charlies out there. There's actually a big misconception that all ground forces know how to use mortars. I barely know which end of the tube is the business end. Regular 11 Bravo infantry usually don't have those skills because it requires additional weeks of training and levels of intelligence that are similar to being able to walk and chew gum at the same time. I can say that those are my people. For those of you who don't know, the infantry is segmented into two designations, 11 Bravos and 11 Charlies. The 11 Charlie types are given additional weeks of training on how to operate the three different mortar systems. This weapon has had more play in the war in Afghanistan than it has in the war in Iraq. Many moons ago, the infantry was split into even more sections with the 11 hotels being responsible for heavy anti-tank weapons. And then basically the army came in, decided to patch the game and consolidate a bunch of those classes down to just the two. If you like mortar teams as much as I do, please remember to hit the like button. It helps promote our content on YouTube. The 60 millimeter mortar was infamously used as one of the main casualty producing weapons by the enemy insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's one of their preferred methods of attack, specifically because it's easy for them to fire and then quickly pack up and leave. The modern mortar came out of a necessity during World War I. Artillery was fired in more of a straight line. With mortars, they needed the high trajectory to get into the enemy trenches. If you've ever played beer pong, you understand this principle of the lob shot versus the straight shot. What a tone deaf analogy to make. Fortunately for us, the US military created a portable radar technology that actually sees 360 degrees and it can locate the exact location of incoming mortar fire that's coming at you instantly. But we have more on that later. So how do the teams work and what are the tactics that they use? Mortar teams traditionally employ 60, 81 and 120 millimeter mortars in teams of three soldiers. They can fire 30 of the 60 millimeter rounds per minute for four minutes, and then 20 per minute for sustained rate of fire due to overheating limitations. The mortar element is usually used at the US Army Infantry Company level. A company has about 100 soldiers. 40 of those soldiers are middle children. 60 of them have insane amounts of debt from getting a Ford Mustang instead of riding around in style like I do with my 2002 Toyota Camry. Within the Marine Rifle Company, they have a section with three 60 millimeter mortars in each weapons platoon. Marines and the Army organize their companies differently and their squads differently due to the different nature of their missions, but we could do a separate video breakdown on that in the future if you guys are interested because that's actually a topic that fascinates me. Back to the mortars. You have a squad leader who controls the fire of the team and is positioned to the right of the mortar facing the barrel. The gunner is on the left side of the mortar in a position where he can manipulate the sight, elevating gear handle and traverse the assembly wheel. The gunner places firing data on the sight and lays the mortar for deflection and elevation. The ammunition bearer is positioned at the right rear of the mortar where he readies the next round and assists in the placement of the mortar tube. In some cases, I've seen mortar men fire the 60 millimeter unassisted. I feel like that's every high speed 11 Charlie's dream to just have a tube, some mortars in their backpack and just shoot it on their own. That's freedom right there. 11 Charlie is the section of the infantry that can grasp basic math, making them the intellectuals of the infantry community by default. It's their job to lay down close support with indirect fire for ground tubes. Their purpose is to suppress the enemy and fix them in place to allow maneuver elements to close in on them. They are effective at breaking up enemy troop concentrations and reduce the mobility of assault forces who are advancing on your position. One of the tactics is to use mortars to force enemy troops into kill zones. The M224A1 can be fired in two modes, either drop fire, meaning that you gravity fire where you just let go of the round and it automatically fires when it reaches the bottom of the tube or you can use the trigger firing mechanism. No, that's the nerf gun. Actually stay on that for a second. That's pretty cool. I guess I have something else I have to buy off Amazon that I can't afford. This mortar can be used attached to the base plate or handheld, which you frequently see being done in Afghanistan. The M224A1 is 21% lighter in weight than the original version, meaning it has a reduction of nine pounds while still maintaining the rate of fire and the same performance as the original version. This was the first redesign for the standard 60 millimeter mortar system since 1970. Knowing when to use the right round is important. You don't wanna be dropping smoke on positions you meant to be dropping explosives on. Which type of mortar round are you partial to? I took one of those Buzzfeed style quizzes to find out what kind of 60 millimeter mortar round I am and it turns out that I'm the M722 dud round. That's not even a real type of munition. There's also a new type of round that the Marine Corps is testing out last year, which is similar to a flashbang and they can be used to disorient the enemy on the objective if you're trying to capture somebody and not hurt them. The standard high explosive round now is the M720A1 60 millimeter HE cartridge, which has some new design features such as the PAX 21 insensitive main charge. This has replaced the composition B charge, which historically has been used in many different types of military explosives like hand grenades. The military is starting to replace that type of explosive in favor of the new insensitive ones. Insensitive means that it won't explode in an unintended way like being shot with a bullet or exposed to fire. And this helps when you're storing these munitions. This M720A1 60 millimeter mortar has a max effective range of 3,850 meters. Counter battery, okay, mortar detection. New advances in technology have come out because of the need to detect incoming mortar fire. On the small combat outposts in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was a need for portable 360 degree radar detection because one of the leading causes of casualties for the American forces was mortar fire. The LCMR was installed on our small football size patrol base in Iraq and it would immediately detect the location of incoming rounds and it could send the information immediately to the counter battery fire. There's a variant of the striker, which has a back opened up so it can fire mortars out of the back. The striker was located on our patrol base and could counter fire immediately. Our larger size FOBs are where the C-RAMs can locate incoming mortar fire with their radar systems and they can shoot the mortar round in midair by firing a barrage of rounds at it. You might be wondering what the difference between mortars and artillery is. If you ask mortar men and artillery men that question, prepare to see a couple of offended soldiers. There are two completely different worlds and they use very different tactics to achieve similar effects on target. Artillery fire fires larger rounds on a flatter trajectory and are usually much farther away from the target. They work in larger teams for this reason. They're also less flexible and require a higher level of coordination and clearance to use on the battlefield. Mortar teams are actually portable with their 60 millimeter mortar. The other mortar types are not typically lugged around due to their weight. During the Vietnam War, they tried to fill the role of the mortar with the 40 millimeter grenade fired from the M79, but troops on the ground felt that the 40 millimeter round wasn't enough power. So they continued to deploy 60 millimeter mortar teams. The technical advances in fire control methods has meant that the responsibility and leadership capabilities of those in charge of mortar teams has become more demanding. The mortar is an extension of an ancient principle of warfare where troops use siege machines to hurl many different types of rocks, bombs, and no joke, even beehives over castle walls onto their enemy. Field artillery assets are limited. Many maneuver elements have to deal with having little to no artillery support, so mortars fill the capabilities gap. Mortars are able to reduce the risk of friendly fire. They can literally be fired directly overhead of friendly troops from positions that are close behind forward elements. This has the effect of allowing combat power to be concentrated at the company level. Mortar teams on the ground are already aware of the situation on the ground near the target, whereas artillery have to rely on information that is relayed to them from the forward observers. Check out our video on forward observers if you wanna know more. The new mortars are vehicle-mounted 60 and 81 millimeter mortar systems, which are GPS integrated. It looks like an automated semi-automatic mortar system, which doesn't require a whole mortar team to fire. It has a rate of fire of 25 rounds per minute and can locate, then destroy a target within 10 seconds. Something else to keep you up at night, this computer mortar system is precise to within two meters. Thanks for watching the video. Please remember to like it. It helps promote our videos on YouTube. I'm Chris Cappie, task and purpose out.