Mortar (weapon)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Mortar" weapon – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of a series on
Cannons
History Artillery in the Song dynasty Artillery in the Middle Ages Naval artillery in the Age of Sail Field artillery in the US Civil War Siege artillery in the US Civil War
Operation Breech-loading List of cannon projectiles Muzzleloading
By country English cannon Cannons of Maritime Southeast Asia Japanese cannon Filipino cannon Korean cannon Majapahit cannon Mughal cannon
By type Anti-tank gun Artillery Autocannon Basilisk Bombard Breech-loading swivel gun Carronade Coastal artillery Coilgun Culverin Demi-cannon Demi-culverin Double-barreled cannon Falconet Field gun Gun-howitzer Gun-mortar Hand cannon Hand mortar Helical railgun Howitzer Infantry support gun Large-calibre artillery Minion Mortar Mountain gun Naval artillery Railgun Railway gun Recoilless rifle Rifled gun Saker Self-propelled artillery Siege cannon Smoothbore Swivel gun Tank gun
v t e

A mortar today is usually a simple, lightweight, man-portable, muzzle-loaded cannon, consisting of a smooth-bore (although some models use a rifled barrel) metal tube fixed to a base plate (to spread out the recoil) with a lightweight bipod mount and a sight. Mortars are typically used as indirect fire weapons for close fire support with a variety of ammunition. Historically mortars were heavy siege artillery. Mortars launch explosive shells (technically called bombs)^[1] in high-arching ballistic trajectories.