I tell you, if we could pump out little miniature JDAM style mortars, how cool would that be? Every grunt out there, would be worshiping these things. That means less mortar rounds to hump around and more lethality with each shot. If you could use some kind of pointer system, like a IR pointer or some laser as a means for guidance, then that would really be cool. Or just use a GPS coordinate. Either way, a precision mortar round would be awesome.
The system must also be easy to use and durable. Once we make accurate munitions like this, tactics could be modified to take advantage of that accuracy. That accuracy has to be consistent and dependable…Hopefully. This is the kind of thing that would bring more capability to the ‘super empowered infantry’ that these guys keep talking about. Oh, and make it small and light. (I know that is a fantasy, but it doesn’t hurt to dream. lol)
Another thing they could do, is to make a smaller Javelin type of system. Imagine something the size of a LAW?
Or how about a precision RPG round? Now that would be really cool, because then you could use those rounds, as well as captured enemy RPG rounds in a fight. That saves weight, and that increases the lethality of a unit. Hell, Airtronics made an American version of the RPG 7, why not make a precision round for it and use it to kill Taliban and Jihadists? I guess I could hint at the idea of precision 40mm, but that would be crazy talk. lol –Matt
—————————————————————–
By Greg Grant
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Afghanistan is an infantryman’s war. Afghan insurgents have mastered fighting small unit actions in mountains terrain where they use skillfully prepared fighting positions on ridgelines and high ground. Springing ambushes from prepared positions, Taliban insurgents offer fleeting targets to direct fire weapons; which explains in part why the Army has received an urgent request from soldiers in the field for a precision guided mortar and has accelerated its efforts to develop and deliver the new weapon.
The “accelerated precision mortar initiative” is all about providing added firepower to the rifle platoon, said Army Maj. Gen. John Bartley, program manager for the Brigade Combat Team, who said the Army’s requirement is to precisely deliver indirect fire from as small a tube as possible. “You can hump a mortar, you can’t hump a Non-Line of Sight Launch System,” he said, referring to the “rockets in a box” missile system that came out of the now dead FCS program.
The Army is looking at a range of potential sizes for the round, from 60mm on up to 120mm, which is currently the most commonly used mortar “Ideally, you would like to give one to everyone… what is the art of the possible is to be determined.” The Army has not decided whether the precision mortar will be laser guided or will use GPS.