Brandt LR Gun-Mortar Technical Summary Bore diameter: 60 mm (2.36in) Barrel Length: 1.80 m (6 ft 10 in) Weight as fired: 75 kg (165.3 lb) Elevation: Traverse: Depends on mounting; up to 360° Weight of bomb: 2.20 kg (4.85 lb) Maximum Effective Range: 4,000 m (4,375 yards) Max ROF: 10 rounds/minute Muzzle Velocity: 250 m/s (820 ft/s)

The Brandt

Edgar Brandt

Edgar William Brandt was a French ironworker, prolific weapons designer and head of a company that designed 60mm, 81mm and 120mm mortars that were very widely copied throughout and subsequent to World War II...

 60 mm Long Range gun-mortar is a breech loading mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

 capable of flat-trajectory firing like a gun

Gun

A gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew-served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm like a rifle or pistol,...

. It is used solely for the armament of light armoured vehicles such as armoured personnel carrier

Armoured personnel carrier

An armoured personnel carrier is an armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield.APCs are usually armed with only a machine gun although variants carry recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles , or mortars...

s (APCs) or IFVs to give them a useful anti-armour capability.

Description

The French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

-made Brandt 60 mm LR Gun-mortar is a very unusual mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

, which is capable of firing like a gun. It is a smoothbore

Smoothbore

A smoothbore weapon is one which has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars.-History of firearms and rifling:...

 weapon that uses the same fin-stabilized bombs as normal 60 mm infantry mortars. These bombs can be breech-loaded

Breech-loading weapon

A breech-loading weapon is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel....

 within the vehicle on which the mortar is mounted, or drop-loaded in the usual mortar fashion.

Ammunition

The Gun-mortar mortar can fire the standard infantry 60 mm bomb, but is also provided with a high-velocity fin-stabilized piercing shot, and a fin-stabilized shaped-charge

Shaped charge

A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Various types are used to cut and form metal, to initiate nuclear weapons, to penetrate armor, and in the oil and gas industry...

 bomb, to give the weapon increased anti-armour capability.

See also

• General Articles
  • Edgar Brandt
    Edgar Brandt
    Edgar William Brandt was a French ironworker, prolific weapons designer and head of a company that designed 60mm, 81mm and 120mm mortars that were very widely copied throughout and subsequent to World War II...
    
    
  • Artillery
    Artillery
    Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
    
    
  • Military technology and equipment
  • Mortar (weapon)
    Mortar (weapon)
    A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
    
    
• Similar weapons:
  • Brandt 60 mm HB Gun-Mortar
  • MCB-81
  • 2B9 Vasilek
    2B9 Vasilek
    The 2B9 Vasilek is an automatic 82 mm gun-mortar developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and subsequently fielded in the Soviet Army. Unlike conventional mortars, the 2B9 can fire in automatic mode using four-round clips, and rounds can be loaded from either the muzzle or the breech...
    
    
• Listings:
  • List of artillery
  • List of mortar