The Arab mass media traditionally have a rather good attitude towards Russian-made military equipment. Just the other day, the Egyptian edition of Al Mogaz published an article about the "silent mortar", calling it the most dangerous weapon of the Russian army. This comparison is an exaggeration, but the 2B25 "Gall" mortar in question is indeed a unique development of the Russian military-industrial complex.
2B25 "Gall" - Russian 82-mm silent mortar, which was developed by specialists from the Nizhny Novgorod Central Research Institute "Burevestnik". Since 2009, this enterprise has been part of the special equipment division of JSC Scientific and Production Corporation Uralvagonzavod. This mortar was first presented to the general public back in 2011, the debut came at the MILEX-2011 arms exhibition, which was held in Minsk. Currently, the mortar is being mass-produced.
The mortar was purposefully created to equip special forces, primarily army special forces. It has no unmasking features, unlike similar models of the same caliber. The silent, smokeless and flameless mortar "Gall" can be safely called the favorite weapon of the Russian special forces. The distinctive features of the mortar listed above are ensured by the use of the 3В035 high-explosive fragmentation round specially developed for it and the unique features of the design scheme. The obtained technical characteristics of the mortar ensure the secrecy and surprise of its combat use.
The main purpose of the 2B25 "Gall" mortar is to defeat enemy manpower located openly and in uncovered shelters of the field type, including in personal body armor. Shooting from the "silent mortar" is carried out with mounted fire both at observed and unobserved targets from closed positions. Fire can be fired from soils of different hardness, at any time of the day or night, at ambient temperatures from -50 to +50 degrees Celsius, the official website of the Central Research Institute "Burevestnik" notes.
At the MILEX-2011 exhibition, Aleksey Zelentsov, a design engineer at the Burevestnik enterprise, said that the product “does not create noise, smoke or flame when fired”. The effect is achieved through the use of a new mortar ammunition, the shank of which has a special design. When fired, this design locks the powder gases in the mine shank. As a result, smoke, flame and shock wave are really not formed, and the volume of the sound accompanying the shot is comparable to the sound when firing from a Kalashnikov assault rifle equipped with a silencer. According to Zelentsov, similar developments exist abroad in France, but they are inferior to the Russian mortar in caliber, warhead weight and firing range.
A similar silent scheme was previously used in the Soviet Union in some weapons, including the PSS pistol (special self-loading pistol), which was put into service in 1983. When fired from a pistol, the bullet is pushed out not by powder gases, but by a special piston, which, having informed the bullet of the initial velocity, wedges in the sleeve and locks the powder gases inside it. Thanks to this solution, the pistol provided the possibility of silent and flameless shooting. Earlier in the 1960s, a silent grenade launcher, known as the Product D "Woodpecker", also entered service with the special forces in the USSR. It was a small unmasking action rifle-grenade launcher, from which it was possible to fire both 9-mm cartridges and 30-mm grenades. Silence of firing was achieved by locking the powder gases in the cartridge case. In general, such weapons are still very rare today.
The transfer of the silent mortar 2B25 "Gall" from the combat position to the stowed position and vice versa is carried out without disassembling it into its component parts. Over short distances, the mortar can be easily carried using belts attached to the product. The mortar is transported in a standard box by any type of transport or in a special camping backpack by a crew consisting of two people. Due to its small mass and dimensions, only one crew number is able to carry the mortar, the second one transfers mines to it. These characteristics allow the commandos to covertly carry the product and use it suddenly for the enemy. The ease with which the mortar can be transferred from one position to another provides even a small unit with the ability to conduct an effective and unexpected fire raid on enemy positions.
Reducing the weight of the mortar "Gall" was achieved due to the thin-walled and shortened barrel in conjunction with the lightweight design of the entire product. This allows only one person to carry a mortar weighing 13 kg, while the mortar will fit in an ordinary tourist backpack. All this, combined with the absence of unmasking factors when firing, makes the 2B25 mortar an ideal weapon for conducting sabotage operations behind enemy lines. For a simple comparison, it can be noted that the mortar 2B14 "Tray" of the same caliber 82 mm, made according to the classical design, already weighs 42 kg and is serviced by a crew of four.
Vertical guidance angles in the range from +45 to +85 degrees provide the silent mortar "Gall" with the possibility of hitting targets at ranges from 100 to 1200 meters. The horizontal aiming angles without rearranging the biped are from -4 to +4 degrees. When rearranging the biped, the firing angle is 360 degrees. The rate of fire of the mortar without correcting the aiming reaches 15 rounds per minute.
All of these qualities make the 2B25 "Gall" silent mortar an attractive weapon for arming special forces, including during counter-terrorist operations. When firing from a closed position, the mortar is most effective, since the mines fly out almost silently, no smoke and bursts of shots are visible. This does not allow the enemy to track exactly where they are being fired from. According to experts, the mortar crew can work quietly, being 300 meters from the enemy, which will never be able to determine exactly where they are shooting at.
The performance characteristics of the mortar 2B25 "Gall":
Caliber - 82 mm.
The minimum firing range is 100 m.
The maximum firing range is 1200 m.
Maximum rate of fire (without aiming correction) - 15 rds / min.
Vertical guidance angles - from +45 to +85 degrees.
Horizontal guidance angles:
- without permutation of the biped: ± 4 degrees.
- with permutation of two legs: 360 degrees.
The mass of the mortar in the firing position (without platform) is no more than 13 kg.
The transfer time from traveling to combat and back is no more than 30 seconds.
Calculation - 2 people.
