A mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect weapon that fires shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber.
A mortar is relatively simple and easy to operate. A modern mortar consists of a tube which gunners drop a shell into. A firing pin at the base of the tube detonates the propellant and fires the shell.
These attributes contrast with the mortar's larger siblings, rifled howitzers and field guns, which fire at higher velocities, longer ranges, flatter arcs, and sometimes, direct fire.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries very heavy immobile siege mortars were used, of up to one metre calibre.
A mortar can also be a launcher for fireworks, a hand-held or vehicle-mounted projector for smoke shells or flares, or a large grenade launcher.
Light and medium mortars are portable, and usually used by infantry organizations. The chief advantage a mortar section has over an artillery battery is its small numbers, mobility and the ability to engage targets in the defilade with plunging fires. It is able to fire from the protection of a trench or defilade. In these aspects the mortar is an excellent infantry support weapon, as it can be transported over any terrain and is not burdened by the logistical support needed for artillery.
There are also heavy mortars of 120 mm to 240 mm calibre. These weapons are usually towed or vehicle-mounted, sometimes breech-loaded, and normally employed by infantry units attached to battalion through division level. Even at this large size, mortars are simpler and less expensive than comparable howitzers or field guns.
A mortar can be carried by one or more people (larger mortars can usually be broken down into components), or transported in a vehicle. An infantry mortar can usually also be mounted and fired from a mortar-carrier, a purpose-built or modified armoured vehicle with a large roof hatch. A heavy mortar can be mounted on a towed carriage, or permanently vehicle-mounted as a self-propelled mortar
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