Barrack buster
1990s improvised mortars by the Provisional Irish Republican Army
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 in Clogher, also in County Tyrone, where the local RUC compound was heavily damaged, and several RUC constables wounded.
Provisional IRA's mortars
The barrack buster belongs to a series of home-made mortars developed since the 1970s. The first such mortar—Mark 1—was used in an attack in May 1972 and it was soon followed by the first of a series of improved or differentiated versions stretching into the 1990s:
Mark 1 (1972): consisted of a 50 mm copper pipe filled with 10 ounces (0.28 kg) of plastic explosives.
The public source identifies “Barrack buster” as 1990s improvised mortars by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Barrack, buster and 1990s.
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