M224 Mortar

The M224 Mortar is a squad-level indirect fired weapon that fires 60mm shells in a high angle arc. It is currently used by the United States Army and Marine Corps.

Its existence was first known from the Gamescom 2011 Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Fact Sheet released by EA. The weapon was then seen in the Battlefield 3: Guillotine Gameplay Teaser trailer, showing it is a carried weapon, not unlike the M1 Mortar and Type 63 Mortar of Battlefield Vietnam.

Singleplayer
In the mission "Operation Guillotine", Blackburn must carry a mortar into position to prepare an illumination round. The team is able to illuminate their target area for the US Marine group Haymaker. Unlike its counterpart in multiplayer, the mortar cannot be fired by the user.

Multiplayer
The M224 Mortar in Battlefield 3 is assigned to the Support kit. It is unlocked at 40000 support score. It is a manually used weapon, and is totally different from the Mortar strike of the Bad Company series, and the SOFLAM of the Recon kit. It occupies the Gadget 2 slot with the other Support-kit explosives.

When deployed, the minimap expands and displays a targeting reticle. The mortar operator must either guess where the enemy is, or rely on spotting to place enemies on the mini-map. Additionally, one must compensate for the time it takes for the round to hit the target.

The M224 has a limited range and cannot be targeted within 50 meters of the user. Much like a bipod on most weapons, the mortar can only be aimed within a 180 degree arc. Although the mortar is fired at an angle, it will always descend at a 90 degree angle.

The M224 has very limited damage, as one-hit-kill requires direct impact.

The user carries an unlimited supply of ammo. The player can fire 60mm HEDP and Smoke shells, and can switch between the two via the "swap weapon" button or keys. The two shell types have separate fire rates, so by alternating smoke and high-explosive rounds, the player can double the number of shells they put out, even though only half of them are explosive. A possible use of this tactic is to suppress an area by using smoke shells to disorient enemies and explosive shells to finish off the enemies. Also, one can both provide smoke cover for an advancing teammate and bombard the enemy at the same time.

Mortar users are marked with a special spotting icon every time they fire their weapon, in addition to regular spotting. This means that the mortar user is very susceptible to getting killed by other mortar users and flanking enemies, so check the map for enemy mortars before setting up, and try not to stay in one place for too long. The biggest threat to a mortar user is an enemy mortar user.

One unique possible way to use the mortar is to eliminate a sniper encountered at long range by getting behind cover and returning fire from (relative) safety. If the sniper is just out of the mortar's range, a smoke shell can be used to temporarily obscure the view in front of the sniper to make a quick getaway.

If the minimap and/or minimap spotting are disabled, such as with Hardcore, the player must rely on other teammate's observations and estimate corrections. A single dot on the HUD is the player's only indication of trajectory—it does not indicate the target, but rather how the tube is aimed.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not actually possible to perform a takedown or a roadkill on someone manning the M224 Mortar, as the game classifies M224 as a vehicle.

1.03 (December 2011)
Knife users will botch most takedown attempts and slash attacks against mortar users.

1.04 (March 2012)
Before the 1.04 Patch, anyone using the M224 Mortar could simply use it from their home base, making it near-impossible to kill the user. The only reliable way to kill them was using another mortar, though it was risky if the enemy noticed them using it. After the 1.04 Patch, M224 Mortars can now only be used in areas where both teams are allowed to traverse, making it easier to kill the operator.

The patch also made the mortar less precise by zooming out the targeting minimap and increasing the delay between fired rounds, making the mortar less effective as a lethal weapon and giving it more of a support role.

Due to a bug, the Mortar could not be placed anywhere on Grand Bazaar after the patch.

1.05 (June 2012)
The bug that didn't allow the player to place the Mortar anywhere on Grand Bazaar was fixed, or so they thought, as the bug seems to be around still on certain servers.

Trivia

 * It is possible to lock on to mortars with guided weaponry, such as Guided Missiles, Guided Shells and FGM-148 Javelin missiles.
 * There will be a small glitch where player does not do the reload animation, but the mortar can still be fired.
 * There is a bug where the mortar can be fired from inside a building and pass through any obstacles to land where it was aimed, as evidenced here.
 * It is possible to kill an enemy with the Smoke Rounds, though it takes more shots to do so than with HE Rounds.
 * If a player stands right in front of the mortar when it's firing HE Rounds, he will survive. When it's firing Smoke Rounds, then it will instantly kill the player.
 * There is a graphical glitch where, every few shots, when the player goes to reload he will appear not to be holding anything, but they will still hear the firing sound and the effects on target will still be the same.
 * The mortar cannot be used on most parts of Operation Métro, for the obvious reason that most of the map takes place in a subway in Paris in the map's Rush and Conquest variant. It can, however, be used on the first and last bases of the map on Rush, and the Cafe (A) flag in Conquest.
 * The 60mm HE round will only inflict ~10% damage to armored vehicles such as tanks where as the 60mm Smoke rounds will inflict ~20% damage.