[Suhiir]

Being a former Marine I've never quite understood the Army's approach to mortars.

During WWII and Vietnam the Marines had 60mm's at company level, 81mm's at battalion, and 4.2inch at regiment. Currently we don't have the 4.2inch active but I strongly suspect the new 120's will wind up at regiment.

The Army doesn't use the 60mm's much, given the extra firepower they get from most of their units being mechanized I can understand that. They had the 81's at company level in the 70's as mentioned above but now seem to have dropped them altogether and are left with only the battalion 120's.

I guess my question is - why doesn't the Army like mortars? Are they just assumeing the artillery battalion in each of their brigades is enough indirect fire support?