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M120-15 Molot 120mm mortar

The M120-15 Molot is mortar launchers designed to destroy enemy troops and equipment in the blockhouses and fighting holes, as well as fortifications. The military hardware was developed by the Kiev plant Mayak in just two months by the order of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The design is basically a reworking of the old Soviet 2B11 Sani mortar. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry ordered the development of the Molot when its stockpile of Sani mortars left over from the Soviet era began to run short, with the ministry wanting a domestically-produced model in series.

According to developers, in contrast to the Soviet models, the M120-15 Molot was made from new alloys that prolong the life of the product. They also said that new engineering solutions should reduce the number of failures. The specifications provided by the producer were almost identical to those of the prototype, although the Molot’s rate of fire was reduced to 12 rounds per minute compared to the Sani’s 15 rounds per minute.

In the fall of 2015, Ukrainian media reported on plans to produce more than 400 mortars during the year, but actually the first batch of 12 units were provided to the army only in June 2016. Later in June, an officer was killed and eight other people injured when a mortar exploded at the Shiroky Lan range in the Nikolaev region. The mortar that failed was a Molot. No full report about the incident has been released so far, but several Ukrainian officials have claimed that the problem was with the shell, not the mortar. “We knew about this mortar since spring and it was said to be an unreliable weapon that constantly fails. That’s why we reacted accordingly when this piece of marvel arrived in our battalion two weeks ago,” one of the soldiers at the range told Strana.ua news website at the time.

Ukrainian military are not satisfied with the quality of the 120-mm mortar launchers M120-15 Molot. During the first tests, the vertical mechanism of launchers was jammed. Two months after the start of the using, the tubes have started to rust. The paint has started to peel off and erase. Ukrainian military are not satisfied with the quality of the 120-mm mortar launchers M120-15 Molot provided to the army for testing, local mass media reported on 18 July 2016.

Cosmoliners in the Rivne region received six mortar launchers in June. During the first test, the vertical mechanism of two launchers was jammed. Some time later, militaries couldn’t change the angle of the laying for range of other M120-15s. Militaries also had claims to the quality of the metal. Two months after the start of the using of the launchers, its tubes have started to rust. The paint had started to peel off and erase.

Anatoly Tapolsky, a popular Ukrainian blogger currently serving in the army, criticized the mortar after his unit tried it. “It’s a bad copy of the Sani. The new mortars look shabby, the paint goes off just like that. We tried 12 Molots, and two of them failed – one just broke even before we erected it, another after the first shot,” he wrote. “And another one really hurts. The Molot costs almost half a million [483,000 hryvnias, about $19,000] so I thought ‘OK, they cheated with the metal hiking the cost eight times, but they must have some really good optics. Molots have sights made in 1946! Made in the USSR,” he added.

Facing the criticism, the head of Ukrainian military corporation Ukroboronprom, which includes Mayak, said on Tuesday there was nothing wrong with the mortar. “A commission established that the 120mm mortar Molot complies with the demands of the 1 category devices, i.e. new devices,” Roman Romanov told 5th television channel. He said the troops who complained about the Molot’s quality must have used them incorrectly and require proper training. He also rejected the allegations that the weapon was overpriced.

Presidential aide Yury Biryukov said the old sights mentioned by Tapolsky were indeed old Soviet products and that Ukraine simply does not produce such devices domestically. He said revealing and eliminating flaws in a new design is a normal process.

Domestic weapons production is a matter of public relations for the Ukrainian government. For over two decades after gaining independence it relied on old Soviet stockpiles and cooperation with Russia to meet its demand for weapons. After the new anti-Russian government came to power in Kiev it broke most of the ties with Moscow, but failed to secure supplies of weapons from its Western sponsors. Each new domestically produced weapon is reported as a major breakthrough by the Ukrainian military and media.