Rheinmetall has received a contract from the U.S. Marine Corps award to produce 40mm practice ammunition for the U.S. Marine Corp.

The $59 million contract, announced Monday by the company, is for 40mm x 53 MK281 MOD3 High Velocity Practice Day/Night Marking Cartridges.

The MK281 -- which Rheinmetall calls a non-dud producing, non-toxic training cartridge -- fires from a MK19 machine gun. With its target marking technology, the cartridges allow for both day and night training.

The military first rolled out the MK19 machine gun for use during the Vietnam War, and it's still in service today. The MK19 can fire 40mm from MK281cartridges at a cyclic rate between 325 to 375 rounds per minute.

The Marines have already placed an order worth $25 million, with production to begin no later than the third quarter of 2019. Rheinmetall expects to produce up to 700,000 cartridges, annually, for the Marines.

The ammunition will be produced in Arkansas and shipped from a Rheinmetall subsidiary in Virginia.

According to the company, Rheinmetall has been producing practice and service ammunition for American military and law enforcement customers for over a decade.

In February, Rheinmetall signed two deals with the Department of Defense, one for the Marine Corps for three types of grenade launcher and one for the Navy for advanced flash-bang grenades.

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