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Thales Scorpion mobile mortar system ready to be tested by the South African armed forces 11609164.
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AAD 2016
Online Show Daily News Africa Aerospace & Defence Exhibition 14 - 18 September 2016 Air Force Base Waterkloof, Centurion, South Africa |
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Thales Scorpion mobile mortar system at AAD 2016
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| Thales Scorpion mobile mortar system ready to be tested by the South African armed forces. | |||
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Thales South Africa has now provided its new Scorpion mobile mortar system to the South African army for test trial. The vehicle could be used by rapid reaction force and Special Forces to offer fire support.
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 Thales Scorpion mobile mortar system at AAD 2016 Africa Aerospace and Defence Exhibition in Waterkloof Air Force Base,South Africa, Friday September 16, 2016. |
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The Scorpion mobile mortar system is now ready for production and can be delivered to the South African armed forces. The mortar system and the onboard fire control system was fully developed by Thales South Africa.
At AAD 2016, the Thales Scorpion mortar system was mounted on a 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser, but the mortar system can be easily fitted on other similar vehicles. Scorpion is an integrated automated mobile mortar platform, capable of target acquisition, onboard fire control, and automatic laying of the mortar tube. Mounted on a single palletised platform, it fires from the back of a vehicle in less than 15 seconds. This is made possible through ballistics calculations, orientation methods and recoil absorption. The Scorpion can operate in day or night conditions. It boasts direct and indirect fire capabilities with high accuracy (pointing and positioning), improved responsiveness and rapid target switching (shoot, shift, shoot).It has a high first round hit probability and is digitally connected to the battlefield. The scorpion can be networked together into a fire group to provide an highly effective force multiplier. |
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The Thales Scorpion mortar system showed at AAD 2016 was fitted with a 81mm mortar but other mortar could be installed as the a Russian 82mm mortar or a standard 60mm mortar. The vehicle was also fitted with a binocular/thermal imager including a laser range finder mounted to the rear left side of the vehicle. Scorpion can have an electric traverse of 360° when there is no binocular system.
The two-people cab at the front of the vehicle is equipped with a Thales fire control system for fire operation, but the loading of the mortar is made manually. The vehicle can carry a total of 81mm mortar ammunition, but the vehicle can also tow a trailer to carry more ammunition. |