Originally Posted by
212man
I think the fundamental difference is that, despite being breach loaded, it still fires mortar rounds. So, with fins and carrying their own propellant. Makes for a much lighter barrel and also allows for switching between direct and indirect targeting.
Originally Posted by
Beamr
Mortars are easy to move from firing position to another compared to artillery. Also, mortarts usually fire at higher angle than 45 degrees dropping greanades near vertically, but range is limited compared to eg howitzers. Ammunition is different as well. a 120mm mortar may have max range of 10km while artllery goes beyond that.
Mortars are great infantry support tools with smaller danger area and can be moved around (shoot and scoot).
If that chassis would have a 120mm gun instead of mortar, it would be more of a IFV/MBT and most likely have a smoothbore gun intended for direct fire up to max 5km (comparing to eg. French AMX-10 RC). If it would have a 120mm gun it would then be a self propelled howitzer intended for indirect fire and ranges from 10km to 20km (ish).
Originally Posted by
Tartiflette Fan
What makes this a self-propelled mortar, instead of a self-propelled gun ? I believed that the defining characteristic of a mortar was loading down the barrel: the name being carried forward from the mediaeval barrel-loading mortiers.
Fond memories of working on the design and development of the Merlin guided mortar bomb back in the late 1980's. Absolute bleeding edge state of the art with millimetric radar seeker, silicon-on-saphire (radiation hardened) in-house production RF front-end, signal processing and guidance control IC's, all surface mount ceramic substrate PCB's, polyamide interconnects, shaped charge warhead, fire and forget in an 81mm package.
After the wall came down and peace broke out, the UK MoD pulled out but the project continued development with fully private funding culminating in some very successful full system trials against moving targets. The key technologies transferred to other systems primarily Brimstone, Excalibur 155mm guided shells and some others I could reveal but then I'd have to shoot you!
Contrast this level of sophistication in British designed and built kit with the stuff shown in the recent images of the kh-101 undergoing development in the Soviet Union at the same time.