FOMM's are technical manuals used to support equipment and system training installation, operation, maintenance, repair, and parts provisioning. FOMM's are also used for purposes of on-the-job training and classroom instruction. The arrangement of data is specifically designed so that technicians can effectively understand, troubleshoot, and repair equipment or systems for which they have had little formal training. It is specifically designed to employ a separate volume organized on a functional basis to provide troubleshooting information to paralled the method of fault isolation and repair methodology by which military forces are trained. Further, it is self-contained requiring limited indexing, figure numbering, paragraphing, and referencing to meet these objectives. This concept is unique to FOMM. Support data is provided in a separate volume organized topically as are standard technical manuals.

Types I and II manuals are final manuals that are provisioned to military services for operational use of equipment and systems.

Types IS and IIS manuals are manuals supplied to military services for evaluating the applicability of equipment or systems for military use. Service test manuals are supplemented by final manuals when such equipment/system is acquired for service use.

Types IX and IIX manuals are technical manuals containing minimum required data to provide operation and maintenance of research and development (R&D) models of equipment and systems. These manuals are not intended for operational use.