a. The development of the Short Range Training Cartridge covered by this specification should provide a substitute for service ammunition, ballistically comparable to the 7.62mm, M80 Ball ammunition at a range of 100 meters. The cartridge was developed for U.S. Armed Forces live-fire training on scaled ranges, restricted maneuver areas and military operations on urbanized terrain scenarios.

b. The cartridge is military unique. The cartridges are packaged in military containers for use integral to the M240B machine gun system. The packaging container becomes a part of the weapon system. While the cartridge may be used individually by commercial sources, its intended use is in a 4 M973 Ball to l M974 Tracer linked configuration for the military.