The US Navy defines blended-metal bullets as, "projectiles which utilize cores manufactured with materials other than lead, using processes other than melting."[1] The solicitation elaborates as follows:
Blended-metal rounds are commercially available at this time in limited quantities from independent dealers in a variety of calibers, and sintered non-lead bullets have been available for handloading since at least 2006.
One now-defunct company, RBCD Performance Plus, Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, produced ammunition marketed as blended-metal bullets.[2] However, RBCD's "Blended-Metal Technology" (BMT) was a trademark and not a description of bullet composition.[3] Independent testing by Gary Roberts showed that RBCD ammunition was, "nothing but lightweight, repackaged varmint bullets disguised with a black coating of moly, and driven to higher than normal velocities with concomitantly higher than normal pressures."[4] Roberts cites a USSOCOM and ARDEC study published in 2007 which supports his findings.[4]