While medium and heavy repeating blasters provide significantly more frirepower than does the T-21, they are also bulkier and require crews of two to three soldiers. They take several minutes to set up or break down, and far too often military units don't have the luxury of waiting around for heavy support weapons.

By contrast, the T021 package is designed for use by a soldier on the move. The weapon, its belt-carried tripod, and twenty-kilogram backpack generator can be set up and made operational in less than thirty seconds. While the blaster can be fired two-handed by a moving soldier, the light tripod offers improved accuracy. The tripod can be fully extended for instances when the T-21 is to be used as a weapon emplacement, but a partially extended position is superb for sniper attacks, allowing the gunner to take advantage of the T-21's maximum range of three hundred meters. Rebel squads often used the T-21, which has an optimum range of one hundred and fifty meters, to eliminate Imperial weapon emplavements and cover advancing Alliance infantry.

While the T-21's standard power pack supply only enough energy for twenty-five shots, its seperate continuous-feed power generator gives the weapon potentially unlimited fire capability, although the generator's low cooling capacity in turn limits the fire rate to once per second.

This weapon is devastating against infantry, wielding enough power output to slice easily through personal armor suits or break down force fields. The T-21 also can cut through the armor plating used on many light combat vehicles, such as armored landspeeders. In the hands of a skilled operator, the T-21 can eliminate an entire enemy squad in a matter of seconds.

Some military units pair the T-21 with an even larger power generator for full autofire, but this tactic requires a second crew member to carry and maintain the bulkier generator. Gunners must use carfully controlled bursts, since heat buildup from sustained autofire has been known to melt the T-21's.