Mortar carrier

A mortar carrier, or self-propelled mortar, is a self-propelled artillery piece in which a mortar is its primary weapon. Simpler vehicles carry a standard infantry mortar while in more complex vehicles the mortar of is fully integrated into the vehicle and cannot be dismounted from the vehicle. Mortar carriers cannot be fired while on the move and some must be dismounted to fire..

The mortar carrier has its genesis in the general mechanisation and motorisation of infantry in the years leading up to World War II. To move an infantry mortar and its crew various methods were developed, for example mounting the mortar on a wheeled carriage for towing behind a light vehicle, attaching the mortar and its permanently fixed baseplate to the rear of a vehicle - the entire assembly hinging from the horizontal for travel and to the vertical to fire, simply transporting the disassembled mortar (tube, baseplate and bipod) its crew and mortar bombs by truck or half track. Provision to allow the assembled mortar to be fired from inside the vehicle resulted in the most common form of the mortar carrier.

After World War II and the general introduction and acceptance of the armoured personnel carrier (APC) variants of vehicles such as the FV432 and M113 were used as mortar carriers, carrying the mortar itself, its crew and a supply of ammunition. In such vehicles the mortar is positioned to fire out of the roof hatch of the vehicle, a turntable is fixed to the floor of the vehicle beneath the hatch to which the tube and standard bipod of the service infantry mortar can be mounted, the vehicle will also carry the mortar's baseplate (often outside the hull attached to the vehicle sides) to allow the mortar to be used dismounted.

In the battlefield taxi role mortar carriers have traditionally avoided direct contact with the enemy. Many units report never using secondary weapons in combat.

Some light armoured fighting vehicles, such the Panhard AML-60 and Ratel-60, utilise gun-mortars such as the Brandt Mle CM60A1 - which can be fired on a flat trajectory. This combination allowed a light vehicle to engage targets both directly and indirectly.

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