A photo has appeared on social media depicting an American 60-mm M768A1 mortar mine equipped with the M734 electromechanical fuze. Mines of this type have been in the arsenal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for an extended period.
The defense forces used these munitions as early as spring 2022. They fired them from the lightweight 60mm mortars, specifically the M224, which are in service with the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps.
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However, these mines were also suitable for KBP-118 mortars produced by the State Enterprise Design Bureau "Artillery Armament" (KBAO).
This time, in the photo, there is a mine with the M734 electromechanical fuze.
The M734 multi-option fuze has 4 modes:
- PRX (Proximity) – detonation of the mine at a height of 1–4 meters above the ground;
- NSB (Near Surface Burst) – detonation at a height of up to 1 meter;
- IMP (Impact) – detonation upon contact with the target;
- DLY (Delay) – delayed activation, detonates 0.05 seconds after impact.
The mode selection is done manually. In all four settings, the explosive material in the projectile is detonated by a cascading series.
The reliability of the projectile is increased by the fact that if the M734 fails to detonate the mortar round at one setting, it immediately and automatically switches to the next. For instance, a malfunction in the PRX setting leads to the selection of NSB detonation, failure to detonate at NSB results in the automatic switch to IMP, and so forth.
However, most likely, there are not many of such munitions in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. After all, the photo itself is captioned as "Remnants of luxury."
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