Mortar

This is a Divisional Application of U.S. Ser. No. 13/102,913 filed May 6, 2011, which is a Continuation-in-Part Application in the United States of International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2009/007392 filed Oct. 15, 2009, which claims priority on German Patent Application No. DE 10 2008 056 112.6, filed Nov. 6, 2008. The entire disclosures of the above patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

The invention relates to a mortar having at least one weapon barrel, which is mounted so that it can move via a ball-ended rod in a supporting device at the bottom, and has an aiming system that is used for elevation and azimuth aiming of the weapon barrel.

Mortars for infantry operations are normally set up manually, with the weapon barrel being aimed manually by an appropriate aiming means, once the firing point has been surveyed. Because the weapon barrel is moved easily after firing a shot, it must be re-aimed manually after each shot in order to maintain a predetermined hit probability.

By way of example, the documents DE 31 21 999 A1 and DE 197 13 192 C2 disclose vehicle-mounted mortars, in which the aiming process for the weapon barrel can be carried out with the aid of mechanical drive means from the interior of the vehicle.

Furthermore, WO 97/48959 A1 discloses a howitzer, which comprises at least one weapon barrel that can be pivoted, an actuating mechanism for barrel adjustment, and an aiming device for the actuating mechanism, in order to align the weapon barrels. The aiming device itself has an autonomous aiming appliance, which is preferably arranged separately from the actuating mechanism and via which the actuating mechanism can be operated and/or controlled in order to aim the weapon barrel in azimuth and elevation, in the sense of a rotary movement of each barrel axis along a conical surface about a vertical axis and/or a pivoting movement along the axial plane through the vertical axis.

The invention is based on the object of specifying a mortar whose aiming system is designed to allow automatic aiming in a simple manner, in particular, of a weapon barrel that is supported on the ground.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by the features of a first illustrative embodiment, which pertains to a mortar having at least one weapon barrel ( 2 ) which, for example, is mounted so that it can move via a ball-ended rod ( 3 ) in a supporting device ( 4 ) at the bottom, and has an aiming system ( 5 ) that is used for elevation and azimuth aiming of the weapon barrel ( 2 ), characterized in that the aiming system ( 5 ) comprises a hinged bearing ( 17 ) having a housing part ( 19 ) that is open at its end faces and on the outside of which a pivoting arm ( 13 ) is mounted so that it can rotate about a horizontal axis ( 20 ), and in which a spherically (rotatably) mounted inner part ( 21 ) is located, which is connected to a cylindrical barrel guide ( 22 ) for movable accommodation of the weapon barrel ( 2 ). Furthermore, particularly advantageous refinements of the invention are disclosed as additional illustrative embodiments. For example, in accordance with a second illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment is modified so that the aiming system ( 5 ) furthermore comprises a carriage ( 6 ) or the like, which can be moved along at least one guide path ( 7 ) substantially horizontally toward the weapon barrel ( 2 ) or away from it.

In accordance with a third illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment is modified so that the first end area ( 10 ) of a pivoting arm ( 13 ) is mounted on the carriage ( 6 ) so that it can rotate about a pivoting axis ( 14 ), which is arranged at right angles to the plane of the carriage ( 6 ), and the second end area ( 16 ) of the pivoting arm ( 13 ) is connected to a hinged bearing ( 17 ), which is at a distance from the bottom supporting device ( 4 ) and guides the weapon barrel ( 2 ). In accordance with a fourth illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment is modified so that, in order to move the carriage ( 6 ) along the guide path ( 7 ), the carriage ( 6 ) is connected to a first drive unit, which comprises a first actuating motor.

In accordance with a fifth illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment or the second illustrative embodiment is further modified so that, in order to pivot the pivoting arm ( 13 ), this pivoting arm ( 13 ) is connected to a second drive unit ( 15 ), which comprises a second actuating motor. In accordance with a sixth illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment, the second illustrative embodiment, and the third illustrative embodiment are further modified so that the pivoting arm ( 13 ) consists of two parts ( 11 , 12 ) which are arranged parallel to one another, are in the form of rods or tubes, surround the housing part ( 19 ) of the hinged bearing ( 17 ) at the side, and are connected to the housing part ( 19 ) via bearing journals ( 18 ) such that they can pivot. In accordance with a seventh illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment, the second illustrative embodiment, the third illustrative embodiment, the fourth illustrative embodiment, the fifth illustrative embodiment, and the sixth illustrative embodiment, are further modified so that a device ( 26 ) for determining the three-dimensional barrel orientation is attached to the cylindrical barrel guide ( 22 ) of the hinged bearing ( 17 ), and acts on the first and second drive units ( 9 , 15 ) via an electronic control device. In accordance with an eighth embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment, the second illustrative embodiment, the third illustrative embodiment, the fourth illustrative embodiment, the fifth illustrative embodiment, the sixth illustrative embodiment, and the seventh illustrative embodiment, are further modified so that a control device ( 27 ) is provided on the housing part ( 19 ) for manual adjustment of the hinged bearing ( 17 ) in azimuth.

In accordance with a ninth illustrative embodiment of the invention, the first illustrative embodiment, the second illustrative embodiment, the third illustrative embodiment, the fourth illustrative embodiment, the fifth illustrative embodiment, the sixth illustrative embodiment, the seventh illustrative embodiment, and the eighth illustrative embodiment, are further modified so that the guide path ( 7 ) is a guide strip that is in the form of a rail and is arranged on or adjacent to a base frame ( 8 ). In accordance with a tenth illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment, the second illustrative embodiment, the third illustrative embodiment, the fourth illustrative embodiment, the fifth illustrative embodiment, the sixth illustrative embodiment, the seventh illustrative embodiment, and the eighth illustrative embodiment are further modified so that a bearing ball ( 23 ) is attached to the cylindrical barrel guide ( 22 ), which bearing ball ( 23 ) surrounds the barrel guide ( 22 ) and is at least partially accommodated by corresponding bearing shells ( 24 ) that are connected to the housing part ( 19 ). In accordance with an eleventh illustrative embodiment of the invention, the tenth illustrative embodiment is further modified so that the barrel guide ( 22 ) and the bearing ball ( 23 ) are integrally connected to one another. In accordance with a twelfth illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the tenth illustrative embodiment and the eleventh illustrative embodiment are further modified so that, on its side facing the muzzle of the weapon barrel ( 2 ) and/or the side facing the bottom supporting device ( 4 ), the bearing ball ( 23 ) has externally visible annular markings ( 25 ), as alignment aids. In accordance with a thirteenth illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the twelfth illustrative embodiment is further modified so that the markings ( 25 ) are depressions that are incorporated in the bearing ball ( 23 ).

In accordance with a fourteenth illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the first illustrative embodiment, the second illustrative embodiment, the third illustrative embodiment, the fourth illustrative embodiment, the fifth illustrative embodiment, the sixth illustrative embodiment, the seventh illustrative embodiment, the eighth illustrative embodiment, the ninth illustrative embodiment, the tenth illustrative embodiment, the eleventh illustrative embodiment, and the thirteenth illustrative embodiment are further modified so that the aiming system ( 5 ) of the mortar ( 1 ) is arranged on a carrier vehicle ( 28 ). In accordance with a fifteenth embodiment of the present invention, the fourteenth embodiment is further modified so that the bottom supporting device ( 4 ) of the mortar ( 1 ) is either connected to the structure of the carrier vehicle ( 28 ) or rests on an earth bed ( 29 ) that is located adjacent to the carrier vehicle ( 28 ).

The invention is essentially based on the idea that the weapon barrel mounting consists of a housing part in which an inner part is mounted spherically. The inner part contains a cylindrical barrel guide, in which the weapon barrel can be moved axially and is guided radially, so that the inner part is always parallel to the axis of the weapon barrel. This allows decoupled mounting, parallel to the axis, of a system that is used to determine the three-dimensional barrel orientation, for example, a gyroscope system, on the inner part. The attachment of the system to the barrel guide, which is arranged parallel to the axis of the weapon barrel, rather than to the weapon barrel itself, means that the system is not loaded by the recoil forces from the weapon barrel. Furthermore, the spherical bearing of the weapon barrel makes it possible to freely choose the height and lateral offset with respect to the mortar barrel aiming appliance for the orientation of a bottom support plate of the mortar.

The aiming system furthermore preferably comprises a carriage, or the like, which can be moved along at least one guide path substantially horizontally toward the weapon barrel or away from it, wherein the first end area of a pivoting arm is mounted on the carriage such that it can rotate about a pivoting axis, which is arranged at right angles to the plane of the carriage, and wherein the second end area of the pivoting arm is connected to the cylindrical barrel guide. In order to move the carriage along the guide path, the carriage is connected to a first drive unit, which comprises a first actuating motor. In order to pivot the pivoting arm, this pivoting arm is connected to a second drive unit, which comprises a second actuating motor.

In one advantageous embodiment of the invention, the pivoting arm consists of two parts that are arranged parallel to one another, are in the form of rods or tubes, surround the housing part of the hinged bearing at the side, and are connected to the housing part via bearing journals so that they can pivot.

In order to automatically re-aim the weapon barrel after a shot has been fired, the gyroscope system functionally interacts with the drive units. As soon as this system finds a discrepancy in the orientation of the weapon barrel, electrical actuating signals are produced by means of an electronic control unit, and act on the first and second drive units. The gyroscope system produces the electrical signals, which describe the orientation of the weapon barrel in three dimensions. This information is compared with the elevation and azimuth angles required to attack the target, and actuating signals for the aiming unit are generated therefrom with the aid of the electronic control unit.

A manual control device can be provided, arranged on the housing part, for manual adjustment of the hinged bearing in azimuth. This allows the target coordinates to be input/transferred manually, the aiming system to be switched on and off manually, and the drives to be controlled manually. The guide path or paths along which the carriage can be moved may be in the form of guide strips that are in the form of rails, and are arranged on or adjacent to a base frame (i.e., a mount).

In one particularly expedient embodiment of the invention, a bearing ball is attached to the cylindrical barrel guide, wherein the bearing ball surrounds the barrel guide and is at least partially accommodated by corresponding bearing shells that are connected to the housing part. In this case, the barrel guide and the bearing ball may be formed integrally. Expediently, on its side facing the muzzle and/or the side facing the bottom supporting device, the bearing ball can have externally visible annular markings, as alignment aids, in which case the markings are depressions, for example grooves, which are incorporated in the bearing ball.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the aiming system is, for example, arranged at the rear on a carrier vehicle, with the bottom hinged bearing of the mortar either connected to the structure of the carrier vehicle or resting on an earth bed that is located adjacent to the carrier vehicle.

Further details and advantages of the invention will become evident from the following exemplary embodiment, which will be explained with reference to figures, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a side view of a mortar according to the invention, in a predetermined initial position;

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the mortar illustrated in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 shows an enlarged illustration of a cross section through the area annotated III in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 4 shows a side view corresponding to FIG. 1 of the mortar in a firing position;

FIG. 5 shows a perspective illustration, corresponding to FIG. 2 , of the mortar in the firing position as shown in FIG. 4 , and

FIG. 6 shows a reduced-scale side view of the mortar illustrated in FIG. 1 , which is located on the loading surface of a motor vehicle, which is indicated by dashed lines.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic of the control system for the mortar, which includes an electronic control unit 82 connected to receive electronic signals produced by a device 26 for determining the three-dimensional barrel orientation, and the electronic control unit outputs control signals acting on the elevation aiming drive 9 and/or on the azimuth aiming drive 15 of the aiming system 5 of the mortar, in accordance with the present invention.

In the figures, 1 denotes a mortar according to the invention, which has a weapon barrel 2 that is mounted so that it can move via a ball-ended rod 3 in a bottom supporting device 4 . In addition, an aiming system 5 is provided for elevation and azimuth aiming of the weapon barrel 2 .

The aiming system 5 comprises a carriage 6 that can be moved substantially horizontally along the guide paths 7 toward the weapon barrel 2 or away from it. In this case, the guide paths 7 are guide strips, which are in the form of rails and are arranged on a base frame (i.e., a mount) 8 .

In order to move the carriage 6 along these guide strips 7 , the carriage 6 is connected (not illustrated) to a first drive unit 9 (elevation aiming drive), which comprises a first actuating motor 90 .

The first end area 10 of a pivoting arm 13 , which consists of two tubular parts 11 , 12 ( FIG. 2 ) that are arranged parallel to one another, is mounted on the carriage 6 such that the pivoting arm 13 can rotate about a pivoting axis 14 that is arranged at right angles to the plane of the carriage 6 . The pivoting movement of the pivoting arm 13 is carried out by means of a second drive unit 15 (azimuth aiming drive), which comprises a second actuating motor 95 .

The second end area 16 , which is opposite the first end area 10 , of the pivoting arm 13 is connected to a hinge bearing 17 , which is located at a distance from the bottom supporting device 4 and guides the weapon barrel 2 . The two tubular parts 11 , 12 , which are arranged parallel to one another, of the pivoting arm 13 surround the hinged bearing 17 at the sides, and are connected to the hinged bearing 17 via bearing journals 18 so that the two tubular parts 11 , 12 can pivot.

The hinged bearing 17 consists substantially of a housing part 19 (See FIG. 3 ), which is open on both end faces and on the outside of which the two tubular parts 11 , 12 of the pivoting arm 13 are mounted such that they can rotate about a horizontal axis 20 (which is parallel to the elevation aiming axis). An inner part 21 is mounted rotatably within the hinged bearing 17 , and comprises a cylindrical barrel guide 22 for accommodating the weapon barrel 2 so that the weapon barrel 2 can move within the cylindrical barrel guide 22 .

A bearing ball 23 , which surrounds the barrel guide 22 , is integrally connected to the cylindrical barrel guide 22 . This bearing ball 23 is partially held on the outside surface by corresponding bearing shells 24 , which are connected to the housing part 19 .

On its sides facing the muzzle of the weapon barrel and facing the bottom supporting device 4 , the bearing ball 23 has externally visible annular depressions 25 that can be used as alignment aids, in particular, for manual alignment of the weapon barrel 2 .

In order to automatically re-aim the weapon barrel after a shot has been fired, a device 26 that contains a gyroscope system 80 is attached to the cylindrical barrel guide 22 of the hinged bearing 17 . As soon as this device 26 detects angular movements of the weapon barrel 2 (the device 26 detects differences in the orientation of the weapon barrel 2 to be selected), the device 26 produces appropriate electrical signals, in order to compensate for these differences. These signals are electronically processed by an electronic control unit ( 82 ), (See FIG. 7 ), and then act on the elevation aiming drive 9 and/or azimuth aiming drive 15 , such that the angular movement errors are corrected virtually without any delay.

As can be seen in particular from FIGS. 2 and 5 , a control device 27 for manual adjustment of the hinged bearing 17 is provided at the side on the housing part 19 of the hinged bearing 17 .

The method of operation of the mortar 1 , according to the invention, will be described briefly in the following text. In this case, after it has been installed on the terrain, the mortar 1 may initially be placed in the initial position as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 .

If it is now intended to fire at a specific target, then the elevation and azimuth aiming angles (and tilt angle) are determined, and the weapon barrel 2 is pivoted by moving the carriage 6 in the direction of the arrow 100 ( FIGS. 4 and 5 ) with the aid of the elevation aiming drive, and by pivoting the pivoting arm 13 in the direction of the arrow 101 with the aid of the azimuth aiming drive 15 , to the position illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 (i.e., a firing position). In this case, the corresponding pivoting movements of the weapon barrel 2 are indicated by the arrows 102 and 103 in FIGS. 4 and 5 .

As soon as the firing position of the mortar 1 has been reached, the corresponding target can be fired at, with the device 26 ensuring that the three-dimensional orientation of the weapon barrel 2 is not changed by the firing of mortar projectiles. In this way, the integrity of the firing position is maintained even though the mortar has fired one or more mortar projectiles.

As FIG. 6 shows, the mortar 1 according to the invention can be used mounted on a vehicle 28 , wherein the aiming system 5 is arranged on the appropriate carrier vehicle 28 . In this case, the bottom supporting device 4 of the mortar 1 can rest on an earth bed 29 , which is located adjacent to the carrier vehicle 28 .

1 Mortar

2 Weapon barrel

3 Ball-ended rod

4 Supporting device

5 Aiming system

6 Carriage

7 Guide path/guide strip

8 Base frame

9 First drive unit, elevation aiming drive

10 First end area

11 , 12 Tubular parts

13 Pivoting arm

14 Pivoting axis

15 Second drive unit, azimuth aiming drive

16 Second end area

17 Hinged bearing

18 Bearing journal

19 Housing part

20 Horizontal axis

21 Inner part

22 Barrel guide

23 Bearing ball

24 Bearing shell

25 Depression, markings

26 Device for determining the three-dimensional barrel orientation

27 Control device

28 Carrier vehicle

29 Earth bed

80 Gyroscope system

82 Electronic control unit

90 First motor

95 Second motor

100 - 103 Arrows