Mortors are a great weapon for "hit and run". They are slow in transit and not terribly loud [more of a 'whoompf' than a bang] at the launch point. The trajectory is parabolic so you can shoot over a building and not be visible to your target as occurs with the RGP.

The new launch tubes are light and collapse into a compact bundle.

A good mortor team can put up a half dozen rounds, break down the launcher and be a block away before anyone starts looking for them.

This is a distrubing change because this isn't a weapon for amateurs. You have to practice to use one effectively and you have to be able to do some math to be effective from behind cover.

The mortor teams speak to the failure to deal with the Iraqi Army.

For many VN vets the mortar ranks right up there with the RPD as "the weapon you don't want to meet." Indirect fire is a bitch to sit through, and it's a lot cheaper to buy and use than the tube artillery the US Army favors. Today's tubes and base plates are easily man-portable in the smaller calibers, like 81 and 82 mm. That means the rounds for them are also very easily carried by a few men. For example, the US-made 81mm mortar weighs in at about 90 pounds - a bad load for one man, manageable for two. Projectile weights run around 12-15 pounds, if I remember. The smaller, 60mm mortar weighs even less (ca. 45 pounds) and projectiles weigh less than 5 pounds. Add a truck or van for transporation (easy in an urban setting) and you've got a lot of quick firepower. If you're the kind of guy who likes to think these things through, you move the tube assembly and ammo in over several days and stockpile it.

As Bryan points out, it's low-tech close support, terrific for harassing fire, excellent, by the way, as assault support, and the bombs arc up high, coming down quickly and relatively silently. Your first warning is a muffled, throaty cough somewhere out there and you quickly learn to say "Oh, shit!" *after* you lay down, or jump under cover.

A well-trained crew can go through a *lot* of rounds very quickly. They can literally have three or four bombs in the air at once, due to its high arcing trajectory.

The mortar is perfect for waking up Viceroys in the middle of the night, just to say hello.

Can anyone tell me where I can go to find an accurate count of U.S. soldiers killed in the current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts?

Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.

1. Timely
   
2. Strategery
   
3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams