Actual Marine mortar platoon commander critiques mortar stormtroopers in “Mandolorian” Nine Line News Team December 21, 2020 Nine Line News 238 Sharp-eyed fans of the Disney+ show “The Mandolorian” noted an addition to the Stormtroopers forces during the series’ second season: a special class of Stormtrooper operating a mortar. In Episode 6 (Chapter 14: The Tragedy), a Stormtrooper with distinct yellow stripes on both helmet and body armor is seen participating in a skirmish on Tython. The Star Wars universe has a lot of weaponry, gadgets, vehicles and spacecraft that seem to defy the laws of physics we understand in our own universe. So how do the mortars stack up to our real world? First Lt. Patrick Cirenza is an 81 mm Mortar Platoon Commander in the U.S. Marine Corps and a graduate of the Army’s Infantry Mortar Leader Course. Writing for Task & Purpose, he provided his professional opinion. We summarize it here. 1. Pretty good actually. Cirenza says the operator and technically proficient. The operator is shown firing three rounds, which gets within an impressive 10-20 meters of his target, Fennec Shand the female assassin and mercenary. The first round appears to do nothing, but according to Cirenza it was close enough that it should have caused a concussion and sprayed her with shrapnel. The second round forces her to take cover while allowing Stormtroopers to mount a heavy laser gun up and move closer — a textbook case of a fires supporting maneuver as described in the official Marines Tactical Employment of Mortars 2. Except for one giant boo-boo. The mortar operator sets up his tube without any cover and is not offset from the axis of the assaulting force – meaning he’s left extremely vulnerable to enemy fire. So that’s one thing. But Cirenza says, “What is completely unforgivable is how he drops the round. Rather than releasing the round and quickly moving his hand down to slap the meaty portion of this thigh, he brings his hand right back over the tube in which he just dropped the round. Milliseconds after the round hits the (presumed) firing pin at the bottom of the tube, the round should have come hurtling out of the tube at a very high velocity and blown his hand off. This is absolutely inexcusable conduct as a mortar trooper (or frankly, any mortarman back here on Earth).” Oops. 3. And finally. Cirenza notes the rounds appear to be not particularly aerodynamic flat-tipped canisters without fins and speculates that shape will cause the round to rotate vertically and horizontally significantly in flight, making it difficult to get accurate rounds on target. But hey! This is the Star Wars universe, not Earth, and with a show as awesome as The Mandalorian, we can buy into the make-believe. One thing we can totally buy into is the Mandalorian creed. It seems to be tailor-made for those of us who are defenders of the Second Amendment and our right to keep and bear arms. Weapons are part of our Religion.
