AUSA 2025: U.S. to test Scorpion vehicle-mounted 81 mm and 120 mm mortars for light forces.

Global Ordnance’s Scorpion Light mortar, shown on a Humvee at AUSA 2025, is being tested as the U.S. explores fast, vehicle-mounted indirect fires for light units. Its digital auto-lay and ground baseplate let crews fire and move within seconds during Army and Marine trials.

According to information gathered by Army Recognition in AUSA 2025 in Washington, on October 13, 2025, Global Ordnance presented its Scorpion Light mobile mortar set up on a Humvee, a configuration the company is showcasing as the U.S. services expand experiments with fast, digitally controlled indirect fire for light units. The display dovetails with near-term trials under the Army’s Transformation in Contact 2.0 effort and follows recent Marine Corps evaluations, signaling a broader push to make shoot-and-scoot mortars organic to small formations.
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Scorpion Light mortar on a Humvee at AUSA 2025, Washington, a vehicle-agnostic 81/120 mm system with a recoil-bypassing baseplate, digital fire control, ~30-second setup and rapid shoot-and-scoot capability (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

Built in partnership with Spain’s Milanion NTGS and sold in the United States by Global Military Products, Scorpion is the Americanized version of the Alakran family. The system can be fitted with 81 mm or 120 mm tubes and is designed to bolt onto a wide range of vehicles without structural reinforcement. A patented non-seating baseplate drops to the ground so recoil bypasses the chassis, letting forces fire off hard surfaces and quickly displace. In U.S. demonstrations, the 81 mm variant has fired its first round in about 30 seconds, delivered a total of eight, and been moving again inside two minutes.

Under the skin is a fully digital fire-control suite with auto-lay, inertial navigation and GPS, preprogrammed target sets, and automatic re-aiming in roughly three to five seconds. Units can preload up to 1,000 aim points before a mission, accept data from observers or drones, and execute multi-round simultaneous-impact sequences. On light tactical platforms, Scorpion typically carries as many as 72 ready rounds, a significant load for small teams that need to bound, fire, and evade counterbattery radar.

Range depends on caliber and munition. Industry data shown during recent U.S. events places the 81 mm configuration around 6.5 km and the 120 mm configuration around 8.2 km with standard bombs, while Milanion NTGS highlights a barrel-cooling system that supports high rates of fire without overheating for sustained missions. For expeditionary moves, the Army-focused setup has been certified for internal transport in a CH-47 and can be air-dropped, aligning with light-forces concepts that prize rapid insertion and immediate fires.

Following a Marine gunners symposium live-fire on a Polaris MRZR Alpha 6x6, the Army has invited Scorpion Light 81 mm systems to TiC 2.0 in Hawaii this month for five days of new-equipment training and 10 days of tactical scenarios. Two GM Defense Infantry Utility Vehicles will carry the mortars and 72 rounds, giving soldiers a chance to critique the auto-lay technology, drill rapid displacements, and stress the logistics of resupply. Global Ordnance is also showing a 120 mm variant on a Humvee during AUSA, spotlighting the scalability of the architecture.

Scorpion aims to give infantry battalions and special operations teams a mortar that behaves like a raid force. A two- or three-person crew can roll into defilade, auto-lay on a preloaded grid, fire targeted salvos, and be gone before drones or radar can cue counterfire. The digital backbone simplifies complex missions such as staggered time-on-target strikes or rapid corrections from UAV spotters, while the ground-bearing baseplate keeps accuracy steady on concrete, rocky tracks, or soft sand. For light forces that cannot tow heavy carriers or linger in open positions, that combination of speed, precision, and terrain tolerance is the whole point.

Ukrainian units, including Kraken special forces, have fielded Alakran-type Scorpions since 2023, praising their accuracy, short setup times, and the ability to decamp in roughly twenty seconds after the last round. That combat use, along with earlier Middle Eastern deliveries, gives U.S. testers a body of evidence that the concept can survive dust, heat, and sustained operations under fire.

Scorpion’s appearance at AUSA fits a wider shift in Western land warfare toward dispersed, resilient fires networks shaped by lessons from Ukraine. The Army is searching for indirect-fire options that can move as fast as the fight and survive a sky thick with drones and sensors. If TiC 2.0 validates the concept, a platform-agnostic, digital mortar could compete for future light-force tables of equipment and become a common NATO solution, with U.S. industry partnerships accelerating production and integration on vehicles from MRZRs and ISVs to Humvees.