Interesting post. Something to consider is the weight of the 120mm mortar round and the velocity that it gains while falling. Here's my experience in Iraq: We had mortar rounds used as IEDs all the time. They blew straight up in the air as they were in a hole in the ground that tampered the explosion completely around them. Sometimes even when close to the trucks, nothing really happened. No one took them seriously. Then, one day, we took mortar rounds from the tubes. They were landing all around us, the concussion was unbelievable. One of them landed next to a humvee and flipped it over. Craters were everywhere.
A mortar round landing on just thin sheet metal is going to go right through it. There is just too much weight, travelling too fast to stop it. Also, you've got to have really thick metal, or armor, to stop the effects of fire. For example, an M1 is designed to take a fire in the engine compartment. But you can google car fires and you'll see that thin metal in cars goes up VERY quickly.
|