PHL Marines Getting New 81mm Mortars

04 Agustus 2019

The Philippine Marines still use the old M29 81mm mortar, which has been in service since the 1960s (photo : Sputnik).

The Department of National Defense/Armed Forces of the Philippines (DND/AFP) under the AFP Modernization Program is acquiring 81mm mortars worth PHP185,891,600.00.

The fund for 81mm mortars will be from the PHP694,452,000.00 allocated to also acquire 60mm and 120mm mortars for the Philippine Navy-Philippine Marine Corps.

The DND will be holding the Pre-Bid Conference on August 13, 2019 for the 81mm acquisition project, PN Mortars – Lot 2 (81mm).

Bid opening is scheduled on August 27, 2019.

“Lessons learned from previous encounters prompted the Corps to pursue the need to employ a mortar system in order to have the capability to easily provide the necessary combat power for the Marine Rifle Company in support of its units waiting for, or in absence of the Battalion combat support,” says in the description under the Technical Specification of the project.

“Another reason is that apart from being vintage, the current 81mm mortar system in the PMC (Philippine Marine Corps) inventory have been used overtime which makes its quality no longer the same as it was before,” it says.

“Technological advancement is also a prime factor that was considered for this procurement. The advent of the Ballistic Computer will enable our mortar crews to react faster than the manual computation which gives the end user a quick and responsive indirect fire support,” it adds.

The acquisition involves the 81mm Mortar units, ballistic computers, forward observer systems, accessories and spare kits, and integrated logistic support (ILS).

(Mintfo)