barrack buster
Country of origin
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Barrack buster is the colloquial name given to several improvised mortars, developed in the 1990s by the engineering unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).
The improvised mortar properly called "barrack buster" - known to the British security forces as the Mark 15 mortar - fired a 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) long metal propane cylinder with a diameter of 36 centimetres (14 in), which contained around 75 kg (165 lb) of home-made explosives and had a range of 75 to 275 metres (246 to 902 ft). The cylinder is an adaptation of a commercial gas cylinder produced by the Cobh company Kosangas for heating and cooking, and used in rural areas across Ireland.
The Mark 15 was first used in an attack on 7 December 1992 against an RUC/British Army base in Ballygawley, County Tyrone, The projectile, fired from a tractor parked near the town's health center, was deflected by the branches of a tree beside the perimeter fence. A number of civilians had to be evacuated. It took ten hours for the British Army technicians to defuse the device. A later IRA statement acknowledged that the mortar bomb had "failed to detonate properly". The following, more successful attack took place on 20 January 1993...
The improvised mortar properly called "barrack buster" - known to the British security forces as the Mark 15 mortar - fired a 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) long metal propane cylinder with a diameter of 36 centimetres (14 in), which contained around 75 kg (165 lb) of home-made explosives and had a range of 75 to 275 metres (246 to 902 ft). The cylinder is an adaptation of a commercial gas cylinder produced by the Cobh company Kosangas for heating and cooking, and used in rural areas across Ireland.
The Mark 15 was first used in an attack on 7 December 1992 against an RUC/British Army base in Ballygawley, County Tyrone, The projectile, fired from a tractor parked near the town's health center, was deflected by the branches of a tree beside the perimeter fence. A number of civilians had to be evacuated. It took ten hours for the British Army technicians to defuse the device. A later IRA statement acknowledged that the mortar bomb had "failed to detonate properly". The following, more successful attack took place on 20 January 1993...
