Mortar Team

Purpose

Mortar teams are high skill, high value assets place into battle situations to help remove dug in enemies or provide cover and support for friendly troops.

As a mortar team, you will be responsible for:

Delivering High Explosive (HE) rounds to both close and distance target locations.
Delivering Smoke rounds to allow friendlies to move either to or from a location.
Delivering Illumination rounds during night time operations to give friendlies better visual advantage.
Being ready to move and relocate should the need arise.

Equipment

82mm Range Tables (Shows distances adjustments and time of flight to target)
Map tools (Gives accurate distance estimates on a map. Each number is 1000m on the edge of the tool)
Watch (Default ArmA tool. Important to keep it open)

Operation

It is common to have a JTAC or Forward Observer working alongside the mortar team to call in support. They will be handling your call-ins and providing info. about splashdown and accuracy of your rounds.

Individual Roles

A mortar team can consist of a Team Lead, Gunner, and a Loader.

Team Lead

The Team Lead is responsible for:

Relaying communications to and from PL and JTAC/FO
Giving the firing solution to the Gunner
- Use map tools and range table to find elevation, azimuth, charge for each fire mission and quickly relay them to the gunner
Giving the shell type and charge of the shell for the Loader
You should be calling "round(s) out", "Inbound, ETA __ ", and any other useful information to keep your friendlies safe and informed

Gunner

The Gunner is responsible for:

Aiming and firing the weapon
Ensuring the distancing and azimuth that the TL gives is accurate. You should be double checking the lead's calculations and call-outs to ensure the round will impact where needed
Stay on the gun. No reason for you to not be on and ready to put in new coordinates
Keep the map up when possible. Sooner you see the mark placed on the map, the sooner you will be able to put ordinance on target

Loader

The Loader is responsible for:

Selecting the right shell and keeping the mortar loading and prepared to fire at any moment
Setting the charge of the shell and keeping the Lead up-to-date on shells remaining
Security. If you aren't loading you should be keeping an eye out for possible flanks. This won't happen often but certain missions may have you in close danger
Help the Gunner with his targeting. Remember what the TL tells him to ensure he can set it accurately

Battle SOP

Command/JTAC/FO will mark a target and instruct the Team Lead over radio which round (he, smoke, illumination) to use
The Team Lead and Gunner use the map tools to range the target
The Loader loads the proper round while the Gunner is setting his weapon. You should call "Loading" and "Loaded" to alert you Gunner
The Gunner adjusts the mortar to the correct direction & ELEV (range keys: default Page UP and Page down, hold SHIFT to change the range slowly)
The Gunner will call "Gun Ready" or something similar to alert TL of the status of the gun.
The Team Lead will call "Fire 1", "Fire 2", ect. to keep track of the number of rounds delivered. He relays the flight time to Command and calls “splash” when the mortar should hit.
Command/JTAC/FO will call for adjustment to ELEV or direction.
Gunner adjusts, and Loader loads another round.
Gunner then fires again if instructed.

Final Notes and Tips

While you have down time you should begin to set your map to look similar to the picture below. Be sure to do it in Group Chat so you don't clutter the map for others. (Image from @Jester2138 [29.Dec.2017])

You will notice he places "AZ" for azimuth and "ELEV" for the elevation for the gun. Doing this will dramatically improve your time to target and fire
Know how to use map tools. If you don't know, see this Link title

Range table for the WWII-era M2 mortar (useful to have on 2nd monitor):