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Description
Link: www.military-today.com/firearm…

Manufactured by the Hawk Engineering Company of Lake Bluff, Illinois, the MM-1 was one of the first repeating grenade launchers to see operational service, and also the first to use a rotating drum magazine. It was designed by Michael Rogak, a firearms engineer who had previously designed the Rogak P-18 pistol.

The development of the MM-1 took place in the 1970s as a private venture, rather than a weapon designed to meet an established military requirement. Its layout and operation that were based on the Manville gas gun, a shotgun-like crowd control weapon from the 1930s that boasted a huge magazine capacity. It was also rather appropriate that Hawk Engineering hired Rogak to re-design the Manville gas gun into a grenade launcher, as he had proven quite competent in that capacity during previous projects (the Rogak P-18 was a redesigned Steyr GB).

The layout of the MM-1 is rather awkward, with a raked rectangular pistol grip and foregrip, an enormous drum magazine, and a large overhead hinge used for reloading the weapon. There are no sights, trigger guard, or buttstock. The magazine holds 12 rounds - more than any other repeating grenade launcher ever fielded.

As it lacks a sighting system, aiming the MM-1 requires a degree of experience, practice, and "guesstimation". Some targets may require multiple shots to hit, especially at a long distance, but the MM-1 does boast a very large magazine capacity.

Besides its large capacity, the most unusual feature of the MM-1 is its use of a clockwork spring to drive the rotation of the drum magazine when the weapon is fired. However, this spring must be manually rewound every time the weapon is reloaded, which further slows-down the already tedious loading process.

The reloading process of the MM-1 is a cumbersome procedure as well, and is similar to how some revolvers are reloaded. The rear half of the weapon is first unlocked and rotated 90 degrees, exposing the chambers. There are no half-moon or full-moon clips for the MM-1, so all 12 rounds must be reloaded one at a time by hand. There is also no extraction mechanism, so each spent casing or unfired round must also be removed by hand, one at a time.

The MM-1 can fire any 40x46 mm low-velocity grenade. The same 40 mm grenades are used by the M79 grenade launcher and M203 underbarrel grenade launcher. A brief outline of examples is featured on the M79 page.

The known operators of the MM-1 reportedly include Brazil, Egypt, El Salvador, South Africa, and the United States. In US service, it was adopted only for special forces use, and it is unclear if it was ever used in combat by US forces. How the MM-1 was acquired by South Africa (during the Apartheid Era, during which there was a strict arms embargo on that nation) has never been explained; however, the subsequent development of the MILKOR MGL may well have been influenced by hands-on experience with the MM-1. A more plausible explanation is that South Africa was listed as an operator by mistake, but another possibility is that they acquired a small number covertly by unconventional means. It also wouldn't have been unique in South Africa's history to have suddenly acquired a suspiciously familiar weapon to one developed elsewhere (see the article on the Ingwe anti-tank missile).

The MM-1 has proven much more popular in fiction than in operational service. It has few military users and no notable combat history, but the MM-1 was a mainstay of movies, video games, and technothriller novels alike. Undoubtedly, its most memorable appearance was in Terminator 2 movie.

Though despite the MM-1's great fame as a "movie star", there is little publicised information on the ultimate fate of the MM-1 program. An unknown number of MM-1s were manufactured, but there presumably weren't many of them. It is unclear as to how or when production of the MM-1 ended, but it is no longer manufactured. The combat history of the MM-1 is also something of a mystery.

Similarly, the fate of the Hawk Engineering Company is unclear as well. The only company presently operating under the name "Hawk Engineering" is a smaller firm in Colorado that customizes recreational vehicles, and there is no evidence of any ties between this company and the one that manufactured what was arguably the world's most powerful low-velocity grenade launcher.

To date, no other company has claimed production rights for the MM-1, and the program appears to be defunct. The status of the examples that were actually built and sold is uncertain.

Related Weapons

Manville Gas Gun: This crowd control weapon was more of a shotgun than a grenade launcher, though it fired tear gas and flare grenades as well.

MILKOR MGL: This smaller repeating grenade launcher has a 6-round capacity, plus a more compact design and better ergonomics. It also has a spring-driven cylinder, just like the MM-1.

ARWEN: The ARWEN (Anti Riot Weapon ENfield) is a 37 mm revolver-style grenade launcher based on the MM-1, though it more closely resembles the MILKOR MGL. It is primarily used to fire less-lethal ammunition.

Country of origin United States
Entered service 1980s
Caliber 40x46 mm
Weight (unloaded) 5.7 kg
Length 635 mm
Barrel length ~ 300 mm
Muzzle velocity 76 m/s
Magazine capacity 12 rounds
Sighting range -
Range of effective fire 150 m
Maximum range 350 m

Description
Link: www.military-today.com/firearm…

Manufactured by the Hawk Engineering Company of Lake Bluff, Illinois, the MM-1 was one of the first repeating grenade launchers to see operational service, and also the first to use a rotating drum magazine. It was designed by Michael Rogak, a firearms engineer who had previously designed the Rogak P-18 pistol.

The development of the MM-1 took place in the 1970s as a private venture, rather than a weapon designed to meet an established military requirement. Its layout and operation that were based on the Manville gas gun, a shotgun-like crowd control weapon from the 1930s that boasted a huge magazine capacity. It was also rather appropriate that Hawk Engineering hired Rogak to re-design the Manville gas gun into a grenade launcher, as he had proven quite competent in that capacity during previous projects (the Rogak P-18 was a redesigned Steyr GB).

The layout of the MM-1 is rather awkward, with a raked rectangular pistol grip and foregrip, an enormous drum magazine, and a large overhead hinge used for reloading the weapon. There are no sights, trigger guard, or buttstock. The magazine holds 12 rounds - more than any other repeating grenade launcher ever fielded.

As it lacks a sighting system, aiming the MM-1 requires a degree of experience, practice, and "guesstimation". Some targets may require multiple shots to hit, especially at a long distance, but the MM-1 does boast a very large magazine capacity.

Besides its large capacity, the most unusual feature of the MM-1 is its use of a clockwork spring to drive the rotation of the drum magazine when the weapon is fired. However, this spring must be manually rewound every time the weapon is reloaded, which further slows-down the already tedious loading process.

The reloading process of the MM-1 is a cumbersome procedure as well, and is similar to how some revolvers are reloaded. The rear half of the weapon is first unlocked and rotated 90 degrees, exposing the chambers. There are no half-moon or full-moon clips for the MM-1, so all 12 rounds must be reloaded one at a time by hand. There is also no extraction mechanism, so each spent casing or unfired round must also be removed by hand, one at a time.

The MM-1 can fire any 40x46 mm low-velocity grenade. The same 40 mm grenades are used by the M79 grenade launcher and M203 underbarrel grenade launcher. A brief outline of examples is featured on the M79 page.

The known operators of the MM-1 reportedly include Brazil, Egypt, El Salvador, South Africa, and the United States. In US service, it was adopted only for special forces use, and it is unclear if it was ever used in combat by US forces. How the MM-1 was acquired by South Africa (during the Apartheid Era, during which there was a strict arms embargo on that nation) has never been explained; however, the subsequent development of the MILKOR MGL may well have been influenced by hands-on experience with the MM-1. A more plausible explanation is that South Africa was listed as an operator by mistake, but another possibility is that they acquired a small number covertly by unconventional means. It also wouldn't have been unique in South Africa's history to have suddenly acquired a suspiciously familiar weapon to one developed elsewhere (see the article on the Ingwe anti-tank missile).

The MM-1 has proven much more popular in fiction than in operational service. It has few military users and no notable combat history, but the MM-1 was a mainstay of movies, video games, and technothriller novels alike. Undoubtedly, its most memorable appearance was in Terminator 2 movie.

Though despite the MM-1's great fame as a "movie star", there is little publicised information on the ultimate fate of the MM-1 program. An unknown number of MM-1s were manufactured, but there presumably weren't many of them. It is unclear as to how or when production of the MM-1 ended, but it is no longer manufactured. The combat history of the MM-1 is also something of a mystery.

Similarly, the fate of the Hawk Engineering Company is unclear as well. The only company presently operating under the name "Hawk Engineering" is a smaller firm in Colorado that customizes recreational vehicles, and there is no evidence of any ties between this company and the one that manufactured what was arguably the world's most powerful low-velocity grenade launcher.

To date, no other company has claimed production rights for the MM-1, and the program appears to be defunct. The status of the examples that were actually built and sold is uncertain.

Related Weapons

Manville Gas Gun: This crowd control weapon was more of a shotgun than a grenade launcher, though it fired tear gas and flare grenades as well.

MILKOR MGL: This smaller repeating grenade launcher has a 6-round capacity, plus a more compact design and better ergonomics. It also has a spring-driven cylinder, just like the MM-1.

ARWEN: The ARWEN (Anti Riot Weapon ENfield) is a 37 mm revolver-style grenade launcher based on the MM-1, though it more closely resembles the MILKOR MGL. It is primarily used to fire less-lethal ammunition.

Country of origin United States
Entered service 1980s
Caliber 40x46 mm
Weight (unloaded) 5.7 kg
Length 635 mm
Barrel length ~ 300 mm
Muzzle velocity 76 m/s
Magazine capacity 12 rounds
Sighting range -
Range of effective fire 150 m
Maximum range 350 m