Ammunition
The mortar's M3 high explosive (HE) shell packed 3.64 kilograms of explosive charge, placing it between the M1 105-mm HE shell (2.18 kilograms of charge) and M102 155-mm HE shell (6.88 kilograms of charge) in terms of blast effect. The mortar could also fire white phosphorus-based smoke shells and mustard gas shells. Chemical weapons were not used in these wars and the U.S. ended up with a large number of these shells, declaring over 450,000 of them in stockpile in 1997 when the Chemical Weapons Treaty came into force. Destruction efforts to eliminate this stockpile are continuing with a few of these aged shells occasionally found to be leaking.
| Available ammunition | |||||
| Type | Model | Weight, kg | Filler | Muzzle velocity, m/s | Range, m |
| HE-T | HE M3 Shell | 11.11 | TNT, 3.64 kg | 256 | 4,023 |
| Smoke | WP M2 Shell | 11.57 | White phosphorus (WP) | 250 | 3,932 |
| Chemical | H M2 Shell | 13.00 | HD, 2.7 kg, or HT, 2.6 kg |
256 | 4,460 |
Read more about this topic: M2 4.2 Inch Mortar