Class IV. Construction materials.
Class V. Ammunition of all types.
Class VI. Personal items (includes all alcoholic beverages; beer, wine, and so forth).
Class VII. Major end items (vehicles, aircraft, weapons, and so forth).
Class VIII. Medical materials (all medical supplies and equipment required to support military
operations).
Class IX. Repair parts (all repair parts).
Class X. Civil affairs (a special category reserved to support military relations with civil
governments at home and abroad).
Of the ten classes of supply, only Class V will be discussed in this lesson.
TYPES OF AMMUNITION
Small Arms Ammunition
Small arms ammunition describes a cartridge, or families of cartridges, intended for use in various
types of hand-held or mounted weapons through 30mm. These weapons include pistols, rifles,
submachine and machine guns up to 30mm, and shotguns. A small arms cartridge (Figure 1) consists
of the following components:
Bullet. Military bullets are assemblies of a copper jacket with a steel or lead core.
Cartridge case. It may be made of copper, brass, steel, or some other material.
Propellant charge. Low-explosive propellent grains (sometimes mistakenly called powder) are
located inside the cartridge case.
Primer assembly. The primer ignites the propellant.
Figure 1. Cross section of a typical small arms cartridge.
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