Referenz-Foto CD "Wiesel 2 Mörser Prototyp"

Photo CD with reference photos for the military / vehicle enthusiasts and modellers.
Overall views and details from all areas of vehicle.
76 photos in JPG format (playable in any standard PC with CD drive and many current DVD players)

The Wiesel 2 Light Armoured Mortar 120 mm (lePzMrs) was developed as an air-mobile fire-support system for the Bundeswehr’s airborne and specialised forces. The first test vehicles appeared in the late 1990s, and in 2002 the then Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement commissioned Rheinmetall to build two further-developed Wiesel 2 mortar vehicles, which underwent extensive troop and climatic trials from 2004 onward. These prototypes were still based on the standard Wiesel 2 chassis with four road wheels per side and retained its compact, air-transportable configuration. They were powered by the 1.9-litre four-cylinder TDI diesel engine rated at 81 kW (110 hp) and could reach around 70 km/h. Despite the considerable weight of the mortar system, the vehicle remained designed for air transport by CH-53 helicopter.
The core of the system is a recoil-mounted 120 mm muzzle-loading mortar that can be operated and reloaded entirely from within the protected and NBC-filtered fighting compartment. Automatic position, direction and elevation determination, together with automatic correction of the weapon alignment after each round, enabled very short reaction times. The vehicle could become ready to fire in less than 60 seconds after halting and deliver a burst of three rounds in about 20 seconds; with the newly developed 120 mm ammunition, a maximum range of approximately 8,000 metres was envisaged. The lePzMrs was therefore designed specifically for a rapid hide–hit–run–hide method of operation: move into position, deliver a short fire mission and relocate immediately afterwards.
The prototypes differed noticeably from the later planned production configuration. Because of the increased vehicle weight, the intended series version was to receive a further lengthened hull with five road wheels per side; a dedicated VT02 test vehicle was used to validate this running-gear configuration at a gross vehicle weight of around 4.78 tonnes. The well-documented early mortar prototypes, by contrast, retained the four-road-wheel layout and can therefore be identified easily. In 2009 the Bundeswehr did order eight weapon carriers for a wider mortar combat system, but the planned larger-scale procurement was not continued as originally intended following the restructuring of the armed forces. Today, the best-documented vehicles are therefore the four-road-wheel development and trials prototypes, which formed the technological basis of the Wiesel 2 armoured mortar concept.