Posted on 05/25/2017 7:18:06 PM PDT by Lorianne
Since the U.S. military began its campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, American troops, primarily special operators, have been creeping closer to the front lines and toward increasingly active combat. A new, official video provides measurable clues about just how close conventional forces now are to enemy in the fight to finally eject the terrorists from their de facto capital in Iraq, Mosul.
On May 19, 2017, the U.S. Army’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division published another in a set of videos of its soldiers supporting Iraqi security forces (ISF) in and around Mosul. Unlike the other footage – which showed paratroopers flying in to a helicopter landing zone on UH-60 Black Hawks, driving and walking through liberated streets inside the city, delivering ammunition, and training Iraqi police snipers – this particular clip followed a mortar section providing relatively close-range fire support. Other images show the mortars in action in or near Mosul as early as March, 14, 2017.
The brigade “enables their ISF partners through the advise and assist mission, contributing planning, intelligence collection and analysis, force protection, and precision fires to achieve the military defeat of ISIS,” the official caption states. “Precision” in this case would be relative to the gunner’s skill, as no guided mortar rounds, though they exist, are visible. It is also not clear whether the troops have GPS-assisted targeting equipment or electronic ballistic computers. They appear to do the initial sighting-in and adjustments manually.
The team from the 82nd Airborne fires or prepared to fire both the 81mm M252 and the 120mm M120 mortars in the video. The M252 has a maximum range of almost three and a half miles, but can also hit targets less than 300 feet away. The significantly larger M120 can toss shells nearly four and half miles away while still able to hit the enemy at ranges just over 650 feet.
However, these ranges are entirely dependent on what type of ammunition the troops are firing, how many propelling charges they’re using, and the angle at which they position the weapon. Though we don’t know the exact inclination of the M120 when the soldiers shoot it in the video, we can see that they’re using M934 or M934A1 high-explosive rounds and stripping off all but one charge from the shell before sending it on its way.
Both the M934 and the improved M934A1 weigh just over 31 pounds and are nearly 28 inches long. The M929 smoke round – which we have found more detailed firing table information for – is identical in weight and less than two tenths of an inch shorter due to the different nose fuze. With only one charge, the maximum range of the M929 drops to just over one and a half miles.
What this means is that, most likely, these soldiers from the 82nd Airborne were within that range of their enemy. The top American command leading the coalition campaign against ISIS, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), appeared to confirm the close-in and less precise nature of the mortars. “CJTF-OIR considers mortars an area weapons system used for protection of Coalition forces and for suppression of enemy forces,” the task force’s media office told The War Zone in an Email.
While the U.S. military has employed artillery in support of Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting ISIS before, it had done so at appreciable distances thanks to 155mm howitzers and 227mm rocket artillery systems. Both of these weapons have the ability to attack targets with GPS-guided rounds dozens of miles away.
SNIP
I am assuming that ISIS is embedded within compounds that have civilians, women, children, etc.
Too bad. PUFF the AC-130 stands by.. gathering dust.. and rust..
I’m thinking snipers. Cheaper. Fewer bullets.
I paid for those MOABs I want them used. If we lose 1 soldier it is too many.
I searched to see if they are making any more MOABs. They are 3D printing them, smaller but more flexible and efficient. Other munitions also being 3D printed. A new version 100# bomb will be as powerful as a 500# bomb.
Why not rockets from A10s and helicopters?
I guess, mini-gatlins and 20MM guns on them will work too..
And close enough for the savages to be firing mortars at US troops. Works both ways.
...I searched to see if they are making any more MOABs....
We lived just outside the north perimeter of Eglin AFB when they tested MOABS. Probably 12-15 miles from the test site.
Our house shook like an earthquake and pictures fell from the walls
That’s why I don’t know why we would not use US air power.
Saving them for the Norks. They have 14,000 artillery pieces aimed at Seoul that need to go away in the first minutes of battle.
RLTW. 2nd Bat mortars will bring the Lord’s vengeance down on those heathens.
I want the last thing the jihadis hear is
BRRRRRRRRRRIPPPPPP as the A10 dusts them off.
Obama is in mourning.
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