MO-120 RT-61 (Mortier 120mm Raye Tracte Modele F1)

History

Every modern combat Army unit employs some form of heavy 120mm field mortar. For the French Army and various global customers, this became the MO-120 RT-61 (from the French Army designation "Mortier de 120mm Raye Tracte Modele F1").

As a heavy field mortar system, the weapon is designed to direct projectiles to stationary, buried enemy targets through non-line-of-sight (NLoS) fire. Design work and manufacturing is carried out by Thomson-Brandt in France, with local manufacturing elsewhere using various labels - Daimler-Benz Aerospace in Germany, Hotchkiss-Brandt in the Netherlands, MKEK in Turkey, etc. MO-120 RT-61 With experience in the 1991 Gulf War, the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and Operation Serval (2013-2014) - the French intervention in Mali - I saw significant combat service .

The army generally relies on three types of mortars, covering 60mm, 81mm and 120mm calibers. The 120mm system offers the strongest punch of the three at longer engagement distances, but at the cost of a larger support assembly and an extra operator. As a result, the MO-120 has a total weight of 1,283 pounds, its barrel is 9 feet 2 long, and the typical crew consists of up to six people. The size of the weapon dictated the use of "mobile vehicles" for transport, which, depending on the type of vehicle, could be towed or mounted under the cover of an armored hull.

The rifled tube fires a 41-pound, 120-mm caliber projectile with an effective range of 8,900 yards (rocket-launched projectiles have a range of up to 14,000 yards). The support assembly provides an elevation range of -30 to +85 degrees launch angle and +/- 14 degrees lateral (from centerline).

The rate of fire is in the range of 6 to 10 rounds per minute.

MO-120 RT-61 is designed to fire standard NATO mortar rounds. Two firing modes are built into its design: the initial function is the standard mortar "bombing" method, and the alternative function is the delayed lanyard drive function - the latter providing more direct control by the operator.

French mountain troops received the MO-120 LT, which was nothing more than a smoothbore variant of the MO-120 RT-60 rifled barrel.

After being adopted by the French Armed Forces, the MO-120 RT-61 replaced the outgoing MO-120 AM-50 series. More than 100 prototypes were procured from France and used by other operators: Belgium, Brazil, Djibouti, Colombia, Cyprus, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Netherlands, Tunisia and Turkey. The Japanese Army calls this mortar the "96 SPM", while the Turkish Army calls its French mortar the HY-12 "Tosam".

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) uses the MO-120 as the M327 EFSS "Expeditionary Fire Support System".

Specification

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Performance

Changes