The L9A1 51 mm light mortar was a man-portable platoon-level mortar used by the

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 ...

from 1988 to 2007. The 51 mm mortar replaced the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

-vintage

2 inch mortar The Ordnance SBML two-inch mortar, or more commonly, just "two-inch mortar", was a British mortar issued to the British Army and the Commonwealth armies, that saw use during the Second World War and later. It was more portable than larger mort ...

in the late 1980s. It was due to be phased out by the use of the

40 mm 40 mm grenade (also styled 40mm grenade) is a generic class-name for grenade launcher ammunition ( subsonic shells) in caliber. The generic name stems from the fact that several countries have developed or adopted grenade launchers in 40 ...

L17A2 underslung grenade launcher (UGL) mounted on the

L85A2 The SA80 (Small Arms for the 1980s) is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO service weapons used by the British Army. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 Se ...

service rifle; however operational experience has led to the decision to replace it with a 60mm mortar. The Hirtenberger AG M6-895 60 mm Mortar was procured in 2007 as an

Urgent Operational Requirement An Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) is a system used by the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) to obtain urgent equipment for operations. Supplementing the MOD's long term planned equipment programme are Urgent Operational Requirements (UOR), ...

(UOR) to replace the current 51 mm Mortar on current operations.

Design

Ammunition for the 51 mm mortar has a small, ring-pull safety pin on the side of the nose-

fuze In military munitions, a fuze (sometimes fuse) is the part of the device that initiates function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fuze ...

. The fuze remains unarmed until the pin is withdrawn. Therefore, the safety pin must always be removed and discarded before a mortar shell is fired. A short range insert device allows the weapon to be used in a direct fire mode. Smoke, illuminating and

high explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An ...

bombs are available.

Specifications

*Calibre: 51.25 mm (2.02 in) *Weight: complete *Length of barrel: *Range: 750 m (820 yd) *Rapid rate of fire: eight rounds per minute *Bomb weight: **Illumination: 800 grams (1.76 lb) **Smoke: 900 grams (1.98 lb) **High explosive: 920 grams (2.03 lb)

External links

51mm Light Mortar
British Army
51mm Light Mortar
Photograph

References

Infantry mortars Mortars of the United Kingdom Cold War weapons of the United Kingdom 51 mm artillery Military equipment introduced in the 1980s {{Artillery-stub