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

Canadian Army The Canadian Army () is the command (military formation), 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 re ...

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, 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; the U.S. armed forces version is the M252.

Description

It was introduced in 1965–66, replacing the Ordnance ML 3 inch Mortar in UK service, where it is used by the

, the

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

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 security tasks relating to the protection of assets and personnel dedicated ...

. 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 vehicles (the replacement for the Bv 206). 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' * : known as 'M8 mortar' * * * * * * * * * * * : L16A2 * : L16A2 * * * * * * * * * * * : M252 mortar *

Former operators

* – Rhodesian Army *

Lebanese Forces (militia) The Lebanese Forces () was the main Lebanese Christian faction during the Lebanese Civil War. Resembling the Lebanese Front, which was an umbrella organization for different parties, the Lebanese Forces was a militia that integrated fighters o ...

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. Some examples of smoothbore weapons are muskets, blunderbusses, and flintlock pistols. ...

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 artillery of the United Kingdom Mortars of the United Kingdom Artillery of Canada 81mm mortars Military equipment introduced in the 1960s