Brandt 60 mm LR gun-mortar
| Brandt Long-Range Gun-Mortar | |
|---|---|
| Type | Mortar |
| Place of origin | France |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Edgar Brandt |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 75 kilograms (165 lb) |
| Length | 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) |
| Barrel length | 1.80m (70in) |
| Shell weight | 2.2 kilograms (4.9 lb) |
| Caliber | 60 millimetres (2.4 in) |
| Elevation | -11° to +75° |
| Traverse | Depends on mounting; up to 360° |
| Rate of fire | 10 rpm |
| Muzzle velocity | 250 metres per second (820 ft/s) |
| Effective firing range | 4,000 metres (4,400 yd) |
The Brandt 60 mm Long Range gun-mortar is a breech loading mortar capable of flat-trajectory firing like a gun. It is solely used as the armament of light armoured vehicles, such as armoured personnel carriers (APCs) or IFVs, to give them a useful anti-armour capability.
Description
The French-made Brandt 60 mm LR Gun-mortar is a very unusual mortar, which is capable of firing like a gun. It is a smoothbore weapon that uses the same fin-stabilized bombs as normal 60 mm infantry mortars. These bombs can be breech-loaded within the vehicle on which the mortar is mounted, or drop-loaded in the usual mortar fashion.
Ammunition
The Gun-mortar can fire the standard infantry 60 mm bomb; but, to give the weapon increased anti-armour capability, it is also provided with a high-velocity fin-stabilized armour-piercing shot and a fin-stabilized shaped-charge bomb.
Operators
Brandt's 60mm gun-mortar has been exported widely with the AML-60 series of Panhard armoured cars. Besides France, it has traditionally been in use with South Africa, Portugal, Algeria, Nigeria, Chad, Iraq, Ireland, Cambodia, and Ethiopia. Several nations, such as Pakistan, may have acquired them from second-hand sources.
In South African service, the mortar is scheduled to be replaced by the DLS M10 BLLR, a conceptually similar—if somewhat longer ranged—armament produced by Denel Land Systems.
Current operators
Algeria
Burundi
Cambodia
Chad
Cote d'Ivoire
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Iraq
Kenya
Mauritania
Niger
Pakistan
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Zimbabwe
Former operators
| Vehicle | Designer | Country | Gun | Users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panhard AML-60 | Panhard |  France
|
Brandt 60 mm LR | Algeria, Burundi, Cambodia, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Iraq, Ireland, Kenya, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Spain, Zaire, others |
| Eland-60 | Sandock-Austral |  South Africa
|
Denel Model K1 | South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe |
| Ratel-60 | Land Systems OMC | South Africa
|
Denel Model K1 | South Africa, Rwanda |
See also
- Brandt 60 mm HB Gun-Mortar
- MCB-81 81 mm gun-mortar
- 2B9 Vasilek 82 mm gun-mortar
- List of artillery
- List of infantry mortars
References
- Hogg, Ian (2000). Twentieth-Century Artillery. Friedman/Fairfax Publishers. ISBN 1-58663-299-X Pg.166