Decades in service: mortar 2B11

Mortarmen of the Arctic Brigade of the Northern fleet unloading a 2B11 mortar from a transport vehicle, 2020

Successful weapon designs can remain relevant and undergo modernization for decades. A good example of this is the domestic 120mm mortar 2B11. It was adopted more than 40 years ago and is still actively used by the troops. The combat characteristics of the mortar were increased through the introduction of new ammunition and auxiliary means, and in addition, weapons complexes were built around it.

Decades in service

The promising 120-mm mortar 2B11 was developed in the late seventies by the Nizhny Novgorod Central Research Institute "Petrel" (now part of the NPK "Uralvagonzavod"). The objective of the project was to create a new regimental mortar with enhanced performance to replace the existing PM-43 and M-120 products.

The basis for a promising weapons took an older mortar PM-43. Its design was seriously redesigned, introducing modern materials and replacing some components. Then, based on the resulting 2B11, new complexes and systems were developed.

In the early eighties, the 2B11 mortar and related developments passed the necessary tests. In 1981, it was put into service - as an independent weapon and as part of the 2S12 "Sled" towed complex. Soon mass production began, aimed at re-equipping the mortar units of the regimental artillery. The simplicity and cheapness of the design made it possible to carry out such a transition in just a few years.

Mortar in position

The production of 2B11 mortars continues to this day, and they regularly receive news on the delivery of the next batches. So, on July 20, the Rostec state corporation reported that the Burevestnik Central Research Institute sent a new batch of towed mortars with a removable wheel drive to the army.

Products 2B11 are regularly used during training and exercises. In addition, sometimes they become a kind of sports equipment. For several years now, they have been used in the "Masters of Artillery Fire" competitions as part of the International Army Games.

For four decades, 2B11 / 2S12 services have been repeatedly used for their intended purpose in armed conflicts. The first was the war in Afghanistan. Then such weapons were used in both Chechen wars. As part of the current Special Operation for the Defense of Donbass, mortars are actively using such weapons, compatible ammunition and controls to inflict fire damage on the enemy.

Simple construction

As befits a mortar, the 2B11 has a simple design, but is distinguished by high combat and operational characteristics. In addition, with the help of various means and systems, an additional increase in key indicators is provided - mobility, accuracy of fire, etc.

Participants of the Army Games 2020 are preparing a mortar for firing

2B11 is built according to the traditional scheme of an imaginary triangle. Structurally, it is divided into a trunk with associated nodes, a biped and a base plate. The mass of the product without additional devices is 210 kg. In disassembled form, the mortar can be transported by various vehicles. There is also a wheel drive for towing without disassembly. The mortar is serviced by a crew of five people.

The main part of the mortar is a smooth barrel of 120 mm caliber, 1740 mm long (14,5 klb). The muzzle of the barrel is equipped with a double-loading protection mechanism. It does not allow you to send a mine into the barrel until the previous one comes out of it. A firing mechanism is fixed on the removable breech, the descent is made by a lever, incl. with a cord.

Mortar 2B11 is equipped with a curved conical base plate with carrying handles. A biped with screw mechanisms for horizontal and vertical aiming is also used. Without moving the biped, horizontal guidance is provided within 5 ° to the right and left of the neutral position. With permutation - circular. Elevation angles vary from 45 to 80 degrees.

The mortar gunner uses an MPM-4M optical sight and manual aiming drives. He receives data for firing from the gunner of the battery, who has at his disposal regular means of control and communication.

Loading process: BVO mortars in an exercise, 2021

2B11 is capable of using all existing domestic mortar mines of 120 mm caliber. It is also compatible with foreign ammunition of the same caliber. The main ammunition is high-explosive fragmentation mines of various types. There are also smoke, lighting and other shots. Depending on the propellant used, the mines are fired at a distance of 480 to 7100 m.

There is also a 120-mm adjustable mortar mine KM-8 "Gran". This product is distinguished by the presence of deployable stabilizers and rudders, and also has a laser homing head. For the use of the "Frontier" laser illumination of the target is required, to which the GOS responds. The maximum firing range of such ammunition is 9 km. KVO does not exceed a few meters.

Ways of development

Despite the simplicity of the design, ways to improve it were found. So, during the modernization, the mortar received a modified base plate, a quick-release firing mechanism, etc. Such a mortar retains all the main characteristics and capabilities, but is easier to manufacture and operate.

Back in the early eighties, the 2S12 Sani complex was created. In addition to the mortar, it includes a 2L81 wheel drive - a special two-wheeled cart with mounts for the 2B11 product. The complex also includes a 2F510 transport vehicle - a GAZ-66 truck, Ural-4320, etc. The wheeled mortar and ammunition are transported in the side body of the vehicle and lowered / raised using a winch. Also, a truck can tow a mortar with certain speed limits.

Shot

The MT-LB machine can be used as a tractor. Also, on its basis, a self-propelled mortar "Tundzha-Sani" is being built. The weapon is mounted on a special installation in the aft compartment of the hull. Shooting is carried out through an open hatch in the roof.

Some foreign countries produced their own versions of the 2B11 mortar and complexes based on it. So, copies of the mortar and the Tundzha-Sani complex were produced in Bulgaria. Kazakhstan, together with Israel, developed the Aibat complex. In this project, the barrel from 2B11 was used with an automated CARDOM installation; together they were placed on the MT-LB or on the BTR-70.

Proven benefits

The 2B11 mortar in various versions has been in service with our army for more than 40 years. In addition, it is used in a dozen foreign countries. Such a long service life confirms the high performance and overall potential of this weapon. In addition, compliance with the current requirements for such systems is demonstrated and the potential for modernization is visible.

2B11, like other mortars, combines simplicity of design, low cost and ease of use. The 120 mm caliber allows you to get a long firing range, and also provides a high power of ammunition. At the same time, mines of various types can be included in the ammunition load of the mortar, incl. manageable, which makes it a tool for solving a variety of tasks.

Cleaning the mortar after the competition, 2020

The characteristics and capabilities of the mortar can be improved with additional funds. So, the battery gunner can use modern means of navigation, communication and control. The integration of a mortar unit into the Unified Tactical Control System makes it possible to increase the data transfer rate and performance, as well as to increase the accuracy of aiming and fire.

The mortar can be used separately or as part of complexes, such as "Sani" or "Tundzha-Sani". In this case, the mobility of the battery increases sharply and the solution of the fire mission is accelerated. At the same time, the risks associated with enemy return fire are reduced.

Contemporary pattern

Thus, the 2B11 mortar, despite its considerable age, remains a modern weapon and is able to solve all the tasks with the required level of efficiency. Its design still gives the desired performance and meets the requirements. At the same time, there is and is being used the possibility of improving the mortar as a complex through the introduction of new ammunition, systems and devices.

It can be expected that in the short and medium term, the 2B11 mortar and systems based on it will retain their place in our army. At the same time, the processes of their development will continue. New controls, platforms, ammunition, etc. again improve the characteristics of the mortar - and help the development of ground artillery in general.

Comments

[Civil]

Mortar and mortar, at the moment - the main thing is ammunition, preferably corrected by Glonass, for example, etc., high-precision systems.

[Ratmir_Ryazan]

We need an analogue of the dill "Nettle" for the operational use of artillery.

In general, it is amazing how in Ukraine a few enthusiasts with a penny budget create something that significantly increases the effectiveness of artillery, while in Russia with a military budget of 50 billion dollars a year there is nothing of the kind and is not even planned.

It's just terrible how the military-industrial complex in Russia has become ossified in Russia and how much it is mired in cutting budget money.

No KAZ on tanks, no heavy infantry fighting vehicles, no worthy UAVs, no elementary individual first-aid kits, no normal walkie-talkies, and a bunch of everything else.

Just a shame and a shame.

Moreover, all this was not a secret, neither the use of UAVs for adjusting fire, nor these programs by dill artillerymen.

Why haven't they studied their effectiveness?

Why didn't they come up with countermeasures?

Why didn't our divisions provide this?

[Fat]

Why didn’t you yourself consider the absence of such a weapon, didn’t offer your own version of its advantages? And is there any reason to equip a "long-range" mass-use grenade with such a chip, for high cost-cutting?
Is that what works?

This is a complex! Not a mortar.

[Ratmir_Ryazan]

This is a complex! Not a mortar.

So we need a complex, a complex that works, and not another bunch of mortars from the Second World War.

[Fat]

Mortar, even a 120 mm front-line gun. And the global system of network-centric warfare in the Russian Federation was developed earlier than the Ukrainian one. We only lack cheap drones. Alas. This is only in X101 and X 102 and there are enough technologies of the 1990s in calibers (it turned out that their own software is enough, even at the level of 386)

[N3onMiami]

Tell me honestly, during the entire time of this war, have you seen anywhere signs of the use of the "network-centric war" system?
Where are our analogues?

[Fat]

There are no “analogues” of mine, if not, you redirect it to the Ukrainian “nettle”, Alexander. This system was good in concept, but in implementation it was very lame when the proposed "decision centers" became the main goal.
I see it all the time, but it does not mean that it is "analogue".
It's time to get out of the cliches of chatter inherent in the beginning of the century

[Proton]

The author, I apologize for the corrosiveness, but I will correct you a little.
- "He receives the data for firing from the gunner of the battery, who has at his disposal standard means of control and communication"
There is no position of "battery gunner" in the state, there is a control platoon. The gunner receives data for firing either from the gun commander, or from the senior officer of the battery, who, in turn, can make the calculations himself, or receive them from the KNP of the battery, or from the "suicide bomber" - the fire spotter.

[demiurg]

The mortar has one wonderful property, mounted shooting. And a whole host of shortcomings:
1. Position cannot be quickly changed.
2. Real rate of fire with adjustment after each shot a couple of shots per minute.
3. Transfer of fire by 15% to the side, a minute or two to reconcile.
4. The calculation is not protected by anything when shooting.
5. Direct fire does not shoot from the word at all.
They keep mortars in battalions not because they are excellent and irreplaceable, but because they cannot replace them with Nonami / Hosts, since it is expensive. And because their production costs a penny at the present time. Even Vasilek with his rate of fire is even better + Vasilek rides wonderfully and shoots on the roof of any motorcycle league, shoots direct fire, easily endures fire in elevation, faster fire.

[Proton]

I disagree with you on many points.
1. You can change position very quickly. If compared with a similar towed gun such as a gun (howitzer), then the change of position at the mortar can be carried out by numbers of the calculation literally running. If we compare Nona with self-propelled guns, then the time is comparable.
2. The real rate of fire of 2B11 is 7 ÷ 10 rounds per minute for a normally prepared calculation. I'll tell you a little secret - after several shots (3÷4 pcs.), the base plate "digs" into the ground so that it is practically not necessary to correct the aiming (well, maybe just a little).
3. You confuse the terms "reconciliation" and "tip". These are completely different concepts.
5. Shooting direct fire is present. If my memory serves me right, then this is exercise # 7, which is just called "Shooting direct fire. I will tell you another military secret - to get a "5" in this exercise, you need to hit the target with the fifth mine. Good calculation hits the target in this exercise with 3÷4 mines.

[demiurg]

1. Fast is how much? Two minutes? And then the calculation, in an embrace with ammunition, begins to move in the Urals. And the shooting is hardly more than two kilometers from the front line.
2. On what soils does the slab dig in, and at what time of the year? In winter on virgin snow or in autumn / spring on black soil? Are you firmly convinced that the average crew will be able to fire with such a rate of fire in mud / snow?
3. Most likely you are right.
4. And what is the direct fire rate of a muzzle-loading gun?
By the way, a question for general erudition, I really don’t know. Is the barrel raised / lowered every time, or do they use a bannik?

[Proton]

1. It is necessary to compare weapons of the same type. I gave you a comparison for towed artillery, and I will repeat it again - the mortar will change position faster. Why start moving into a tuck with BC? About ranges - open Wikipedia, there is this parameter. I just didn’t understand how the range from the front line and the mobility of the entire system are interconnected.
2. After a couple, three field trips with live shooting, you yourself could test how sticky the plate is. On frozen soils, it may not be so fast, but it also happens.
I am firmly convinced of such a rate of fire, personally verified.
4. The rate of fire of the 2B12 depends only on the preparation of the crew and some firing conditions. That direct fire, that shooting from closed positions does not affect the rate of fire.
At your last sentence, I realized that you are not familiar with combat work on mortars, so this proposal put me in a stupor. For the first time I hear that a bannik is used to lift the barrel.

[demiurg]

1. And what about towed artillery? Nona/Khosta and the 82/120mm mortar have the same task, fire support at the battalion level. So these are direct analogs. Firing range 120 mortar 7km. The line of contact is about 3 km. You can't drag them further than four kilometers from the front line, even if you shoot at the nearest trenches.
How many on "5" is the deployment of the mortar from the body before the first shot? And how many on the "5" curtailment and leaving the position? This is minus the time that fire support will not be provided, there will not be, the movement to a new fire support is the same for any equipment.
If the shooting is direct fire, it is less than 45 degrees, the mine will not go down by itself (I think so on the couch). So you need to either raise the barrel, or send something.

[Proton]

You are a good theoretician, but if I took you to the mortar crew, then only as a carrier of mines. After 2 ÷ 3 months and one field exit, the duties of the loader could be entrusted.
Well, somewhere in a year, another one could be tried as a gunner. But only after the mortar had been delivered several times.
And if without jokes - your theoretical training is very far from both practice and mortar theory.

[Fat]

It's very superficial.
Points 1-2-3 are especially doubtful. The calculation after a series of shots, the calculation departs from the position and takes cover. The calculation during firing is protected by a cover group.
Valery, I won’t even ask if you served in the army. For civilian pickups, the return of a shot even through a stove is fatal.
They are used for "nomadic" smaller calibers. The "cornflower" you love has a caliber of 82 mm ... And yes ..
The cornflower has a shooting rate of 120 shots per minute. 100 is real.

This is "Cornflower" on MTLB in Afghanistan.

[demiurg]

I am a generalist couch theorist, which I have never hidden.
Nona can immediately change position after a series of 3-4-5 shots. And a couple of minutes to roll into the body, plus rides in an embrace with ammunition under the protection of a tarpaulin a couple of kilometers from the front line, is a dubious pleasure. Plus, by the way, a couple of minutes to deploy. Total 3-4-5 shots, minus five minutes of fire support.
what I see on the video from the NWO zone, or the video of the Taliban / Americans in Afghanistan, is 3-4 rounds per minute maximum. And this fire is fired here and there from solid ground.
I really don't know how long it takes to move a leg according to the standards. But in the same place at least there should have been catching the horizon.
Not Lopatov you)) he would immediately remember about the variable charge

[Fat]

With a mortar, as a rule, targets are determined in advance and they do not try to hit more than one target in "one sitting" - it is fraught. In Grandfather, a wearable battalion BM 82, the combat rate of fire is determined by the training of the calculation - up to 25 rounds per minute. The regimental 2 B11, a descendant of the PM-43, has from 10 to 15 shots. With the available firing range - a minute - this is a breakthrough of time for snipers and counter-battery weapons.
Everything is like the rangers of the "wild west" One thing - one ranger
Besides:
The modern modification 2B11 has the ability to fire almost all types of 120-mm artillery mines, including guided artillery mines KM-8 "Gran", in addition, the time to bring the mortar into combat position has been reduced from 20 minutes to 1,5 ... 2 minutes. The 2B11 mortar can be used as part of the 2S12 "Sani" mortar complex with the use of wheels for towing, and can also be mounted on tracked chassis JSC Central Research Institute Burevestnik
At the regimental tube PM 43 - the range - is limited to about 480 m to a maximum of 7 km.
At 7 km, no one fires a mortar.
2B11 has the same disadvantages

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

Vasilek would probably look good on the Ural chassis like a 120-mm mortar of the Phlox project. Unlike the fasteners on top of the MTLB, it would be convenient to get the cassettes out of the stowage there, there would be a large portable ammunition load, and automation of guidance would not interfere.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

There are also benefits. These are compactness, ease of disguise and low cost. Sometimes it is not even necessary for the crew to change position, it is possible, as in the video from the combat zone, to throw the mortar itself with branches, and the crew to hide in a shelter.

[demiurg]

Quote: Sergey Alexandrovich

There are also benefits. These are compactness, ease of disguise and low cost.

In general, this is called passing off need as a virtue. The battalion needs artillery support, and the mortars are sitting in cover at this time. But it's cheap, yes.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

This is another case when art support is needed. I'm talking about the ease of camouflage at the end of firing.

[demiurg]

There are two battalions. in front of each other. Some have 120mm mortars, others have hostas.
Two hosts, changing positions in turn, do not allow the mortars to fire, and the rest crush the enemy battalion.
Either the mortars are constantly changing positions, but this is the time for folding-deployment in minutes.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

This is an abstract version of the development of events that does not reflect the realities. Self-propelled guns with mortar ballistics, due to the short firing range, cannot be located close to the forward edge for a long time. They will be discovered and they will try to destroy them, and not only in the course of an imaginary duel with portable mortars. And the much more compact 2B11 can be easily camouflaged and ready to fire immediately.

[saigon]

You know the need for virtue, I don't know.
It just so happened that once I had the joy of raking from mortars with enviable constancy.
So that's how much it costs, it doesn't matter, but that it is an effective weapon, and even with calculations that are hand-assed to the limit.
Believe me, there are enough of such outdated and cheap pieces for a long memory.

[Conjurer]

Thus, the 2B11 mortar, despite its considerable age, remains a modern weapon and is able to solve all the tasks with the required level of efficiency.

Actually, no. Taking into account the sharp increase in the density of counter-battery combat, as well as the possibilities for reconnaissance and fire destruction of vehicles and ammunition storage areas, there is no future for towed artillery, and even with "manual" guidance. It will suffer more and more losses and experience more and more shortage of ammunition as intelligence capabilities (detectability and responsiveness) increase and, in the end, will become just a burden that it is more expensive to use.
In order not to "fall under the distribution", artillery, ideally, should fire on the move, and in order not to "scatter" ammunition across the field, it should fire automatically, without human intervention, being in the same target designation circuit with reconnaissance. Plus, an accurate account of all influencing factors to ensure the accuracy of the shot. A strong enemy will not allow you to freely transport ammunition and, moreover, store it. It will not allow you to stand in one place or move openly.
Or rather, of course you can, but you are unlikely to like the result.

[nonsense]

as a wide-ranging couch expert, I would like to note that if the Defense Ministry had a brain and desire, over these 40 years they could have equipped the entire army not with these old devices, but with quite modern ones rifled mortars of the type "Nona-M / M1" (2B18 / 2B23). Their accuracy is much higher than that of smoothbore systems. On a self-propelled chassis (which is important)! But no, all this time these 2B11s were riveting and developing all sorts of expensive (and unnecessary) Nona-S, Nona-K, Nona-SVK ...
PS: And someone will prove to me that the enemies of the people did not exist under Stalin and do not exist now? funny...

[N3onMiami]

According to TK Zvezda, we have the first army in the world, but in reality everything is much more prosaic.

[Andrey VOV]

After such articles, you read the comments and you understand that 90% of the broad-based couch experts who did not serve in the army did not use weapons in real combat operations, read heaps of literature and watched videos on the Internet. And those 10% who actually served, serve, used one or a different type of weapon, participated in the hostilities, it’s just that these bathers are flooded with an avalanche and ugats with so-called "knowledge".

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

Sorry, dear, in every topic something similar comes from you, that no one fought except you. What did you want to say, or do you have nothing to say again?

[Andrey VOV]

I am grateful that you follow my comments, but the point is not that I did something, but as comments and commentators, the practitioner says one thing, which is actually what he did with his own hands, so sofa theorists talk their , and even though the stake on the head of the Cheshi will insist on its own, it's annoying

[Bogalex]

Also, on its basis, a self-propelled mortar "Tundzha-Sani" is being built. The weapon is mounted on a special installation in the aft compartment of the hull. Shooting is carried out through an open hatch in the roof.
Some foreign countries produced their own versions of the 2B11 mortar and complexes based on it. So, copies of the mortar and the Tundzha-Sani complex were produced in Bulgaria.

No. The Tundzha complex was originally of Bulgarian origin and does not belong to domestic developments.
In our country, the 120S2 "Nona-SVK" has become a full-fledged self-propelled development in the 23-mm caliber. Unfortunately, very rarely flashing in the footage of reports from the troops.
And 2B11, the main "hard worker" of battalion artillery, remained only transportable as part of the 2S12 complexes on GAZ-66, 2S12A on Ural-4320 and 2S12B on MTLB.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

Phlox is needed, not Nona-SVK. A large portable ammunition load, a higher rate of fire and convenience, plus a cheaper and more reliable chassis, albeit at the expense of cross-country ability. At first, I didn’t like this car myself, but now I see that it was a good idea, keeping up with the times. But where are they, these wheeled self-propelled guns?

[yakisam]

A cool photo with the participants of Army Games-2020 - the mortar is installed on non-standard wheels - rims and tires are ordinary cars :) an interesting specimen. I don’t want to guess why such a complete set, but rims with fastening for a metal decorative cap and wide soft passenger tires are not for real use
but what an illustration