81mm mortar system to be moved by vehicle, not by soldiers

South Korea will improve its heavy and less accurate 81-millimeter mortar system. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced Thursday that it started to deliver the initial mass production volume of the new 81-millimeter mortar system from June.

The new weapon automated with digital technologies is easy to move and deploy, which reduces stress on soldiers. The old system had lower mobility because soldiers had to carry it themselves, which caused concerns on their fatigue and the weapon’s stability. There were restrictions in carrying out missions such as delayed responses and miscalculation in the process of manually calculating shooting specifications.

The new system is 20 percent lighter than the old one and can be quickly deployed to anywhere on a vehicle designed for it. The state-of-the-art digital technologies of South Korea adopted for it automated the entire shooting process including spotting a target, calculating shooting specifications and controlling the posture of the weapon and reduced the time needed to prepare for shooting to three minutes from six. It also has a precision strike capacity using digital equipment, which is why the military expects it to significantly improve fire support of forward units.

“Apply digital technologies to the 81-millimeter mortar system is unprecedented in the world,” said an insider of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. “We plan to complete integration of the system and advance into the overseas export market with our development vendor, Hyundai WIA, by 2024.


Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com