The Army's Smart New Mortars Could Actually Hit a Target [Monster Machines]
Mortars are an invaluable tool for infantry forces, but the problem is that they aren't exactly accurate, only half land within 136 meters of where they're aimed. That sort of success rate just won't do in Afghanistan, where minimizing collateral damage is an imperative. That's why General Dynamics built a mortar with pinpoint accuracy. Mortars provide indirect (not line-of-sight) firing capabilities to infantry troops against both enemy positions and assets without having to rely on heavy artillery forces. Mortars are dumb-bombs that come in either finned or spin-stabilized varieties. Finned mortars utilize metal fletching to maintain its flight path, while the spin-stabilized version travels much as a bullet does when leaving a rifle barrel. Both types are fired at low speeds with high, arcing trajectories. That's great when you want to fire upon an enemy base from behind the crest of a hill (as the Vietnamese did with great success in the siege of Khe Sahn), but...