[20] It was designed for direct firing only, and sighting equipment for this purpose was furnished with each weapon, including an affixed M8C .50 cal spotting rifle.

[22] Although unsuitable for military purposes, M27 recoilless rifles were used to trigger controlled avalanches at ski resorts and mountain passes in the United States.

[24] It has also been mounted on M113s, UMM 4x4s,[24] Jongas,[25] Fath Safirs,[26] Land Rover Defenders,[27] Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen,[28] Hotchkiss M201 jeeps,[1] Toyota Land Cruisers,[8] Jeep CJs, Willys M38s, HMMWVs, M274 Mechanical Mules, Tiuna 106 mm weapons platforms, JODDB (formerly King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau) Al Jawad vehicles, RBY MK 1s, AIL Abirs and AIL Storms.

[citation needed] The M40 was a very successful export item and continues to be used by South Korea, Ecuador, Estonia, Greece, Honduras, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines, Taiwan, Turkey, Colombia, Venezuela and many others, as well as anti-government forces in the Libyan Civil War and Syrian civil war.

Near the end of the M40's service life, both Austria and Sweden produced HEAT rounds for the weapon capable of penetrating more than 700 mm of armor.

The spotter round was developed to replicate the trajectory of the 106 mm ammunition, and features a tracer element and a point-detonating incendiary filler to create a puff of white smoke at the impact point.

[45] In the early 1990s, the United States Forest Service (USFS) introduced the M40 for avalanche control as ammunition stocks for its M27 rifles became depleted.

The M40 was initially successful due to operational similarities to the familiar M27 and ready availability from the U.S. military; however, in 1995, a USFS gunner was killed by shrapnel after a low-level premature warhead detonation inside an M40 barrel.

Following this incident, most USFS M40s were quickly replaced with surplus 105 mm howitzers, but a few were kept in service with safety barriers to protect the gunners, who fired the guns remotely.

[46] Also in the mid-1990s, Parks Canada acquired four M40s for avalanche control to replace the Canadian Armed Forces using 105 mm towed howitzers in Rogers Pass (British Columbia) on the Trans-Canada Highway.

After a trial period, the M40s plan was abandoned and the Canadian Armed Forces once again began providing 105 mm towed howitzers and artillery personnel to conduct avalanche control.