Babcock and ST Engineering's 120 mm Ground Deployed Advanced Mortar System mounted on a Supacat HMT 600 patrol vehicle displayed at the Defence Vehicle Demonstration 2024 exhibition in Millbrook on 18 and 19 September. (Janes/Andrew Galer)
Babcock International Group and ST Engineering unveiled their 120 mm Ground Deployed Advanced Mortar System (GDAMS) mounted on a Supacat High Mobility Transporter (HMT) 600 patrol vehicle at the Defence Vehicle Demonstration (DVD) 2024 exhibition held in Millbrook, United Kingdom, on 18 and 19 September.
If selected for the UK's indirect fires programme, the vehicle-mounted hinged mortar will be built at Babcock's production facility in Devonport using a UK supply chain and creating 70 local jobs, Babcock said in a press release.
The head of Fires Programme at Babcock, Holly Shuttleworth, told Janes that the intention behind the GDAMS is in line with the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) Land Mobility Programme, forming a Lightweight Fires Platform (LFP) as part of the replacement of the army's 105 mm L118 Light Guns. She added that a requirement is expected in early 2025.
Babcock brought the project to a concept level on the Supacat HMT patrol vehicle. Shuttleworth added that Babcock will be test integrating it onto a Supacat Jackal patrol vehicle, with firing tests in November 2024.
The mortar itself is from ST Engineering, which also has experience of systems integration. Shuttleworth said ST Engineering would be brought to Devonport to help set up mortar factory lines, but that all production, in line with the MoD's land industrial strategy, would be British. This would include the re-establishment of barrel manufacture in the UK through Babcock's partnership with Perfect Bore in Andover.
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