Profile
- Type
- 120 mm towed smoothbore mortar
- Origin
- Yugoslavia
- Service note
- Entered service in the late Cold War and remained in post-Yugoslav and export inventories into the 2020s.
Artillery
120 mm M75 mortar
The 120 mm M75 mortar is a Yugoslav-designed towed smoothbore mortar for infantry fire support, smoke, illumination, and high-angle indirect fire in broken terrain. In the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, open-source loss documentation places M75 mortars with Armenian/Artsakh forces during the 2020 war, where several were destroyed or captured.
- Built in
- Serbia; Bosnia and Herzegovina
Service History
- In service
- 1981-present
- Used by
- Armenian / Artsakh forces
- Wars
- Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
Production History
- Designer
- Military Technical Institute, Belgrade
- Designed
- Mid-1970s development lineage
- Built in
- Serbia; Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Produced
- 1981-present
- Variants
- M74 lighter 120 mm mortar, M75 120 mm mortar
Specifications
- Caliber
- 120 mm
- Range
- Up to 7,200 m with new HE shell in Yugoimport data; other ammunition gives shorter maximum ranges
- Elevation
- 45 degrees to 85 degrees
- Traverse
- 3 degrees left/right with fixed bipod; 360 degrees by bipod displacement
- Mass
- About 190 kg in firing position and 270 kg in travelling position
- Barrel length
- About 1,695 mm
- Crew
- 4
- Maximum rate of fire
- 15 shells per minute
- Transport
- Can be towed by vehicle, moved by animal pack or sled, helicopter-lifted, parachuted on a pallet, or man-carried in sections over short distances
Conflict Usage
- Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
- Side: ArmeniaArtsakhRole: Towed mortar fire support
Open-source loss documentation records Armenian/Artsakh 120 mm M75 mortars destroyed or captured during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh fighting, indicating use as battalion-level indirect fire support.
Related Weapon Systems
82 mm 2B9 Vasilek automatic mortar82 mm automatic gun-mortarThe 82 mm 2B9 Vasilek is a Soviet automatic gun-mortar that combines mortar trajectories with clip-fed rapid fire from a wheeled carriage. In the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, open-source loss documentation places captured Vasilek mortars on the Armenia / Artsakh side, making it part of the short-range indirect-fire layer around the 2020 fighting.
120-PM-38120 mm towed heavy mortarThe 120-PM-38, also known as the M1938, is a Soviet 120 mm smoothbore heavy mortar designed under B. I. Shavyrin and built for infantry fire support. Its large mortar bomb, wheeled transport arrangement, and roughly 5.7 km range made it a durable Soviet artillery design, with Ukrainian stocks documented around the Russia-Ukraine War and pre-war Yemeni Army stocks listed in Yemen Civil War equipment references.
2S12 Sani120 mm heavy mortar systemThe 2S12 Sani is a Soviet/Russian 120 mm mortar system built around the 2B11 mortar, a wheeled carriage, and a transport vehicle. It gives battalion-level units a mobile indirect-fire weapon with a roughly 7 km range, and modernized 2S12A systems on Ural-based vehicles have continued to appear in Russian supply and combat reporting during the Russia-Ukraine War.
M933-series mortar projectile120mm high-explosive mortar cartridgeThe M933-series mortar projectile is a U.S. 120mm high-explosive mortar cartridge family centered on the M933A1, a service round for M120 and M121 mortar systems. In the Israel-Hamas War, the United States approved a Foreign Military Sale to Israel for 50,400 M933A1 cartridges in August 2024.
MO-120 RT120 mm rifled towed heavy mortarThe MO-120 RT is a French 120 mm rifled towed heavy mortar developed by Brandt and later associated with TDA/Thales production. Its rifled barrel, two-wheel carriage, and rocket-assisted ammunition option give it longer range than many smoothbore infantry mortars, while remaining towable by light or medium vehicles. In the Russia-Ukraine War, Ukrainian forces received Belgian MO-120 RT mortars and used the type for front-line indirect fire support.
PM-43120 mm towed heavy mortarThe PM-43 is a Soviet 120 mm smoothbore heavy mortar, a strengthened wartime development of the PM-38 that combined a large high-explosive bomb, a two-wheel carriage, and a six-person crew for infantry fire support. OSCE monitoring documented a probable PM-43 in a non-government-controlled area of Luhansk oblast during the Russia-Ukraine War, showing how legacy Soviet mortars remained present alongside newer 120 mm systems.Sources
Yugoimport 120 mm MortarsPublisher: Yugoimport SDPR | Note: Supports official product-document availability for the 120 mm M75 mortar. | Accessed: 2026-06-20120 mm M75 Mortar DatasheetPublisher: Yugoimport SDPR | Note: Supports M75 mortar specifications, transport methods, fire-support role, and technical background. | Accessed: 2026-06-20Seventy Years of the Military Technical InstitutePublisher: Scientific Technical Review | Note: Supports Military Technical Institute development background for the M74 and M75 120 mm mortar generation. | Accessed: 2026-06-20Nagorno-Karabakh Equipment LossesPublisher: Oryx | Note: Documents 120 mm M75 mortars used by Armenia / Artsakh in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict through destroyed and captured examples recorded during the 2020 war. | Accessed: 2026-06-20Mortar 120 mm M-75 Croatian ArmyPublisher: Wikimedia Commons | Note: Supports image provenance and CC BY-SA 3.0 licensing for the M75 mortar photo used in the entry. | Accessed: 2026-06-20