[notdownwidems]

If there’s a woman out there who can hump with an 81 mm baseplate strapped to their pack for even three miles, I’d like to meet her. She’s quite a woman....

Good morning Old Teufel Hunden and many thanks for your selfless service! Just out of curiosity, how much does the baseplate for an 81mm mortar weigh?

[rlmorel]

I saw a video of a fire mission (Don’t know if it was Afghanistan or Iraq) where the individual Marines were physically taking 155 mm rounds off the bed of a truck that was close to lower/mid chest height. (I assume they were 155mm rounds by the awkward way they were carrying them...I think if they were 105 mm, they could carry those far less awkwardly.)

They were holding the rounds in a bear hug, then walking-frog walking them about 20 yards over to another area and putting them on the ground, then coming right back for another one.

It looked like exhausting, back breaking work if you had to do that for any length of time. You would be hard pressed I think to find many women who could carry more than one or two.

In a combat situation where every physical body can make a difference, to have only guys being able to do that is a severe disadvantage to unit capability.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Just out of curiosity, how much does the baseplate for an 81mm mortar weigh?"

I went out and looked it up and per this website:

http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/infantry/mortar/M252.html

The current one weighs 29 lbs. Combine that with your regular combat load of anywhere from 50 - 60 lbs and each mortar round weighs 15 lbs per the website also and you can see that it can get pretty heavy.

[treetopsandroofs]

“Good morning Old Teufel Hunden and many thanks for your selfless service! Just out of curiosity, how much does the baseplate for an 81mm mortar weigh?”

Per the granddaddy of Trusts, 29 pounds.