Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
Deconfliction is ridiculous nonsense. The chance of one mortar bomb hitting an aircraft is marginal. There's a lot of nonsense happening around the topic of "deconfliction". Present-day deconfliction is a bureaucratic overreaction to a marginal problem and hurts more than it helps.

About the difference between 120 and 155mm; indeed, you could do many jobs with 155mm instead. The problem is human behaviour; you need a low performance, low-range asset that's not much worth to higher commands to ensure that you have the support at all. Artillery can too easily be occupied with other tasks than supporting you.
This works for 60mm vs 120mm as well - and is at the same time a completely different story due to many factors (especially the fact that the Bn depends on the success of its Coys while Art doesn't depend on some Inf Bn 20 km away).


About setting up a 60mm mortar:
- the ground may be rather unsuitable (slope or too soft)
- GPS jamming may prevent a quick set up
- the team may be suppressed because it's relatively close to the action
- they may be below foliage


Again, my point is that everything that can be substituted for at Bn level should not be in a Coy - similar with Coy and Plt.
I would want the infantry to be as nimble as possible - the acceptable weight limit can too easily be reached with its line of sight hardware alone.
Have you ever used a 60mm mortar Fuchs? No need for GPS to set up, patrol baseplate will fire on darn near any surface, and no foliage is going to detonate a 60mm mortar round. As far as being close to the action, ta-da, trigger fire mode!
Reed
former 60mm gunner.