Cornflower.

This is coolbert:

Here is the automatic mortar that the defector Suvorov speaks so highly of.

Vasilek. Cornflower.

"The 2B9 Vasilek (Cornflower) is an automatic 82 mm gun-mortar developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and subsequently fielded in the Soviet Army. Unlike conventional mortars, the 2B9 can fire in automatic mode using four-round clips, and rounds can be loaded from either the muzzle or the breech. Because of its wheeled carriage, the 2B9 resembles a light artillery piece more than a conventional mortar."

Automatic mode using the four-round clip breech loaded. AND uniquely so [?] this mortar "loaded from either the muzzle or the breech"

Comes in either a towed or self-propelled. ONLY the Soviet first and NOW the Russian has such an automatic mortar?

I am curious to knowalso if this a cast-iron smooth bore mortar firing a cast iron mortar bomb.

Cast iron mortars smooth-bore firing a cast iron mortar bomb favored by the Soviet and now [?] the Russian also!

You can build more of the cast-iron version mortar cheaper, quicker, more simpler. That cast-iron mortar bomb too splinters in such a fashion on detonation as to produce a more deadly and crippling wound, harder to treat.

The Soviet model allowing for the battlefield to be proliferated with a profusion of these mortars, firing a prodigious amount of rounds [mortar bombs what they are called almost every but in the U.S.] that amount of noise, blast and flying fragments terrifying if nothing else.

With regard to mortars the comments of the Soviet spetsnaz lieutenant that served with distinction in Afghan are most germane:

"Actually I didn’t see anything better then Soviet weapon but those [American] mortars. They were much lighter then ours, the mines [rounds] for them were packed without any grease, we didn’t need to wipe them dry, as we had to do ours"

The Soviet cast-iron mortar and the cast-iron mortar bombs needing a constant coating of grease like preservative to prevent rusting, rounds and the inside of the tube requiring a "wiping down" prior to firing.

Cast-iron yesterday and today, alloy tomorrow? I cannot say. A devoted reader to the blog knows the answer?

coolbert.