It was deployed extensively in the War in Afghanistan by the United States military.

The M224 system is composed of these parts: The mount consists of a bipod and a base plate, which is provided with screw-type elevating and traversing mechanisms to elevate/traverse the mortar.

This smoothbore system can be gravity-fired or fired by using a manual spring-loaded trigger.

[3] By reducing the number of components and using lighter materials, the M224A1 mortar system weighs at about 37.5 lbs (17 kg), which is 20% less with a reduction of 9.3 lb (4 kg) compared to the original M224.

[3] Concurrently, a lighter version of the 81 mm M252 mortar was also developed.