The first significant safety incident involving the F1 occurred on 14 November 1995, at an Australian Defence Industries shell filling factory in St Marys, New South Wales.

"[8] During this time, the defence force procured sufficient stocks from the United States of M67 grenades for training use and overseas deployments.

[8] These reports came from Australian soldiers deployed in the Middle East and saw the ADF take "rapid steps to confirm the reliability of grenades in service.

[11] In September 2018, it was announced that Thales Australia and Chemring Group signed a joint memorandum of understanding covering cooperation in the "design, development and manufacture of a future range of grenades.

[2] The F1 grenade has an overall mass of 375 g (13.2 oz), and contains over 4,000 2.4 mm (0.094 in) steel balls arranged to "achieve uniform distribution of lethal fragments through 360°" on detonation.

Because it does not use fragmentation, the F2 has more predictable blast patterns and increased user safety compared to the F1, and is chiefly suited to use within confined areas for close-quarter combat.

[2] The grenade itself is near-identical to the F1 in physical characteristics consisting of a high-impact aluminium die cast body with a replaceable pyrotechnic fuze with a 0.5 g (0.018 oz) flash composition.

This fuze creates audible output and a distinct visual white smoke cloud visible up to 200 m (220 yd) to indicate the simulated functioning of the grenade.