Hey Everyone!
I thought it might be fun to post a couple of entries on the research I did for Tom Clancy Target Acquired. Here's the first one on the EMTAS Mortar System which figured prominently in the book's climax. Enjoy!

Don

EMTAS Mortar System

The Enhance Mortar Targeting System or EMTAS really is a technological marvel. It was developed partly in response to the tragedy that occurred at Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan during which an American unit was surrounded by Taliban fighters and nearly overrun. Poor weather conditions at the time prevented the employment of close air support, or CAS, forcing Keating’s defenders to rely on their own organic mortar systems to beat back the attack. Unlike the EMTAS, traditional mortar systems have a fixed range fan. This means that in a scenario like Keating in which the enemy attacks from all sides, the mortar men would have to lay the mortars each time an attack came from beyond their prescribed range fans. This is a time consuming process and greatly reduces the mortar system’s rate of fire. To combat this, EMTAS has a massive 120mm cannon mounted on a rotating turret controlled by a fire control computer. This allows the mortar crew to quickly and accurately service targets across a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree range fan, negating the enemy’s ability to surround and overwhelm fixed American forces.