The L16 81mm mortar is a British standard mortar used by the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

, and many other armed forces. It originated as a joint design by the UK and Canada. The version produced and used by Australia is named the F2 81mm Mortar, whilst the version used by the U.S. armed forces is known as the M252. It was introduced in 1965–66, replacing the

Ordnance ML 3 inch Mortar The Ordnance ML 3-inch mortar was the United Kingdom's standard mortar used by the British Army from the early 1930s to the late 1960s, superseding the Stokes mortar. Initially handicapped by its short range compared to similar Second World Wa ...

in UK service, where it is used by the

, the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious warfare, amphibious light infantry and also one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighti ...

and the

RAF Regiment The Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regiment) is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps. Founded by royal warrant in 1942, the Corps carries out soldiering tasks relating to the delivery of air power. Examples of such ta ...

. In UK armoured/mechanised infantry battalions, the L16 mortar is mounted in an FV 432 AFV (six per battalion mortar platoon). British army light role infantry battalions and the

may transport their mortars in

BvS 10 The BvS10 (''Bandvagn Skyddad'' 10) is a tracked articulated amphibious all-terrain armoured vehicle produced by BAE Systems Land Systems Hägglunds of Sweden. This vehicle, referred to as the All Terrain Vehicle (protected) - ATV(P) or ''Vi ...

vehicles (the replacement for the

Bv 206 Bandvagn 206 (Bv 206) (meaning ''"Tracked Vehicle 206"'' in English) is a tracked articulated, all-terrain carrier developed by Hägglunds (now part of BAE Systems Platforms & Services) for the Swedish Army. It consists of two units, with all f ...

). Otherwise, it is carried disassembled in three loads, (barrel, baseplate and bipod with sights, each approximately 11 kg), normally carried by a vehicle or helicopter and assembled for firing from the ground. The weapon can be man-packed by the mortar detachment, in which case the ammunition would be carried by other soldiers of the battalion. In addition to their normal equipment, each soldier would carry four bombs in a pair of two-bomb plastic containers (known as ''greenies'' in the British Army).

Operators

Current operators

* : known as 'F2 81mm mortar' * * * * * * * * * * * – Armed Forces of Malta * * * : L16A2 * : L16A2 * * * * * * * * * * * : M252 mortar *

Former operators

* – Rhodesian Army

Gallery

File:L16 smoothbore.png, View down the

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without signi ...

barrel of the L16 mortar. File:L16 baseplate.png, L16 baseplate. File:L16 sight.png, L16 C2 sight. File:L16 81mm mortar fired by JGSDF soldiers during Orient Shield 2012, -31 Oct. 2012 a.webm, Video of L16 81mm mortar fired by JGSDF soldiers during Orient Shield 2012

References

External links

* {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Infantry mortars Cold War weapons of the United Kingdom Mortars of the United Kingdom Artillery of Canada 81mm mortars Military equipment introduced in the 1960s