M224 Mortar

The M224 Mortar is a squad-level artillery weapon that fires 60mm shells in a high parabolic 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 will be 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 for a teammate to use. The team is able to illuminate their target area. 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 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. There is a graphical glitch where after a few shots, the users hand will appear to be holding nothing, but they will still hear the firing sound and the effects on targets will be the same.

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.

Mortar users are marked with a special spotting icon every time they fire their weapon, in addition to regular spotting.

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.