DavidPawley said:

Where is your fire base that’s within 5650m of the insurgents that are 1000m from your patrol?

Because you are securing the local population from the insurgent interference as part of a hearts and minds campaign with adequate numbers of troops, support and clear goals. 

If you dudes continue to talk about 81mm mortars, I won't resist the temptation anymore and I will start to talk about RPAs / UAS which carry mortar bombs right above heads of the adversaries. Please don't make me derail this thread

poliorcetes said:

If you dudes continue to talk about 81mm mortars, I won't resist the temptation anymore and I will start to talk about RPAs / UAS which carry mortar bombs right above heads of the adversaries. Please don't make me derail this thread

Well that would be an obvious solution but we are talking US army here.

Red7272 said:

Every heard of an AGL why do they need a mortar then?

Well, the most obvious reason to take a mortar is 81mm HE > 40mm HEDP. 

Other possible reasons they might want to have a mortar are firing smoke...

...and illumination.

P.S.  Dismounted use of 81mm mortars in Afghanistan was probably rare, but not unheard of.

81 mm mortar team, 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, Operation JANUB ZILZILA, Zabul, Afghanistan, 2008 | Online Collection | National Army Museum, London (nam.ac.uk)

poliorcetes said:

If you dudes continue to talk about 81mm mortars, I won't resist the temptation anymore and I will start to talk about RPAs / UAS which carry mortar bombs right above heads of the adversaries. Please don't make me derail this thread

LOL.  This thread was derailed more than 100 posts ago when the XM25 and Mk47 were brought into the discussion.  

Got any more good ones?

My favourite is from Iraq. Bunch of guys with AKs blast away at a patrol from 800 metres while there is a closer sniper with a Tabuk hidden inside the back of a car or next to a pile of something soft to mitigate the muzzle report. US army spent years thinking they were being shot from 800 metres by AKs until someone realised it was a Chechen tactic that had made the trip to Iraq. 

No, I mean the engagement geometry won’t work for many locations. It’s trivial to engage the patrol from 1km and be out of 81mm max range unless the patrol is so close to the fire base that there’s no pretence that the patrol is anything other than perimeter security.

Why not?

They're also apparently using aiming and fire control from three generations ago to be sporting in Stan's example so why not have it be a squad 81mm