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From: carlson@haven.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Accuracy of M203? (was Re: Small Arms)
Message-ID: <1991Mar15.040459.10226@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 15 Mar 91 04:04:59 GMT
References: <1991Mar4.212601.9682@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar6.042515.25383@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar8.023826.10803@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar14.040807.28534@cbnews.att.com>
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From: carlson@haven.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson)
In article <1991Mar14.040807.28534@cbnews.att.com> mtxinu!Ingres.COM!daveb@uunet.UU.NET (Dave Brower) writes:
>
>If the thing fires ~400m with an arced trajectory, what kind of accuracy
>can the grenadier have firing it hand-held?  You'd think it would take a
>few shots just to find the range, or a hell of a lot of practice with
>dummy rounds.  (Is this a case of "close only counts in horseshoes and
>hand-grenades"?)
>
>Do mortars exist anymore?  Are they deployed in artillery units or
>somewhere else?

The M203 has a fold-out sight on top of the M16 and it is supposed to
be able to deal with the trajectory and get you close (as you said, 
close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades) to your target.
I've never actually tried to hit anything with one.  Also, one
M203 round I haven't seen mentioned is what we used to call a
"shotgun" round.  It has pellets in it and is designed to use as
a direct fire weapon.  When we put guards on the Ammunition Supply
Point we used to issue these rounds instead of giving them M-16
ammo.  I think the idea was that they could stop someone, but were
less likely to accidently kill someone with the M203 than they 
were if they panicked and fired an M-16 on full auto.

Mortars:

In a standard infantry battalion each line infantry company (A, B, C)
has three "infantry" platoons and one mortar platoon with 81 mm
mortars.  The battalion's Combat Support Company has 4.2 inch
mortars.  In Airborne and light divisions it is downsized to 60mm in
the company and 81mm as a battalion asset in the headquarters company.

Mortars are an organic infantry asset and are designed to be used as
observed fire.  If the unit needs additional indirect fire support 
they will call on their direct support artillery battalion.
"Laying in" an artillery battery is a very meticulous operation and
they are trained to do it very quickly and accurately.  Laying in
the mortar platoon is a less precise operation and there is a 
proportional loss in accuracy of the first few rounds.  The artillery
observer may be many miles from the artillery and the artillery fire
must be accurate enough hit a distant target.  The mortar observer
is usually quite close to the mortars.  In most cases the mortar crew
can see what they are shooting at.

Bruce Carlson