Patria demos Nemo 120 mm mortar in United States

Finland’s Patria said its120 mm Nemo (New Mortar) turret, integrated onto its Armoured Modular Vehicle (AMV) 8×8, has conducted a firepower demonstration in the United States.

These trials were done at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, and Fort Benning, Georgia, and included indirect and direct target engagements as well as Multiple Round Simultaneous Impact (MRSI) fire missions, Kari Reunamäki, Patria’s senior vice-president for Weapon Systems Land, told Jane’s . The latest demonstration was at Fort Benning in September.

Patria said the 120 mm Nemo turret weighs 1.9 tonnes. For trials, the AMV carried 60×120 mm mortar bombs supplied by Belgium’s Mecar (now France’s Nexter Munitions).

Nemo’s main role is indirect fire support, but it can also do direct fire missions against bunkers and other battlefield targets. It is also capable of coming into action within 30 seconds and can come out of action immediately.

In 2018 the US Army began a market survey “to identify capable sources to develop and produce the 120mm Mortar Future Indirect Fire Turret (FIFT)”, according the service’s official notice.

The army currently deploys 120 mm smoothbore mortars via its M1064A3 vehicles with the mortar firing through open roof hatches. The vehicle is based on the M113 family of tracked armoured personnel carriers. These 120 mm smoothbore mortars are to be fitted in the latest BAE Systems Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), which is currently in low-rate initial production and will still fire through open roof hatches.