Australia begins distributing new 81mm mortars
In August, new US-manufactured 81mm mortars began rolling out to the Australian Army, replacing F2 81mm mortars that have been in service since the 1960s and which even saw service in the Vietnam War.
The army is receiving 176 units of the M252A1 mortar under Project Land 136 Phase 1, a programme that is unsurprisingly entitled Land Force Mortar Replacement.
The mortars are being distributed to regular infantry, special forces and reserve artillery units, with the first tranche of 50 weapons being handed over to units in August. A second tranche will deliver the remaining weapons sometime between October 2019
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