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Exeter
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Amstrong
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02.02.2005 00:32:49
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Артиллерия;
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Это из статьи в JDW
JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY - JANUARY 19, 2005
South African Army to adopt M6 mortar
HELMOED-RÖMER HEITMAN JDW Correspondent
Cape Town
The South African Army has issued a request for proposals to Denel Land Systems for the supply of its 60 mm M6 long-range mortar system.
While a final decision is still to be taken, the army seems set to standardise the M6, which will replace the existing 60 mm and 81 mm mortars at company and battalion level respectively.
The army's battalions typically have three 60 mm mortars per company and 12 81 mm mortars in the battalion's support company. The 60 mm patrol mortars are carried at platoon level and these will probably be kept in service. The decision to opt for the 60 mm, which a senior South African infantry officer said made the service "just about the only army in the world to go to a smaller calibre", was taken after field trials demonstrated the effectiveness of the M6 and its long-range ammunition.
The M6 has a maximum range of 6,000 m, with a 100 per cent zone of 270 m by 70 m (the projectile spread) at that range. The existing 81 mm M3 mortar has a maximum range of 4,860 m, and the 60 mm M1 a maximum range of 2,100 m. Denel's long-range 81 mm mortar has a maximum range of 7,600 m with a 100 per cent zone of 270 m by 68 m. Another key advantage of the 60 mm long-range mortar system is that its bombs are much lighter at 2.4 kg than an 81 mm bomb but have a similar fragmentation spread on the target. An army officer put that in perspective by explaining that a Ratel-81 mortar carrier has a standard load of 96 bombs but could carry as many as 360 long-range 60 mm bombs.
Denel Land Systems offers the M6 in a standard man-portable form and as a vehicle-mounted system with an automatic fire-direction system using GPS for automatic self-positioning. It has also done preliminary work on a breech-loading automatic variant of the M6 for the LCT30 turret it is proposing for the army's new- generation infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), which will replace its Ratel 6 x 6 IFV.
С уважением, Exeter