That spreads the carbon throughout the weapon. When a suppressor is on a firearm a kind of “organ piping” effect happens where the gases are trapped inside and the sound rings from the front of the suppressor back to the breech. “It allowed us to look from breech to the end of the suppressor,” Cler said. The smuzzle is a hybrid suppressor/muzzle brake. The trio of engineers was able to use those internal simulations to see all of that in a new way.Ī Next Generation Squad Weapon prototype with the Generation 5 'Smuzzle' installed. This means a tradeoff for the soldier – lower the sound signature but increase the flash and a weapon that has to be cleaned more. Suppressors are notorious for getting the gun dirty and making a larger flash than bare barrels often equipped with flash hiders. Some of the benefits besides a reduction in sound and recoil are a cleaner shoot and a lower flash. That modeling work and the subsequent 3D printed prototypes put together what is now a patented hybrid muzzle brake and suppressor. Over the ensuing years, Oberlin, Cler and Eric Binter, also with the Armament Center, ran many simulations to better understand what’s going on inside of the suppressor and the firearm.Įach of the three men has worked with their respective centers between 13 and 17 years, nearly all of that work being done at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. A good muzzle brake would reduce the recoil, improving accuracy. Standard suppressors for that caliber often couldn’t handle the heat put off by belts of rounds being fed through “the pig,” as it is affectionately known.Īnd the gun produces a decent recoil when compared to the standard M4 carried by most soldiers. Work at the Armaments Center and the Army Research Lab kicked off in 2007, with a focus on the M240 machine gun, which fires 7.62mm and produces a lot of noise.

Handheld 50 cal machine gun