SIONICS was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 company producing firearm suppressor

Suppressor

A suppressor, sound suppressor, sound moderator, or silencer, is a device attached to or part of the barrel of a firearm which reduces the amount of noise and flash generated by firing the weapon....

s (also called "silencers"). It was founded in the 1960s by Mitchell WerBell, a former OSS

Office of Strategic Services

The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...

 and CIA

Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

 officer.

History

The company was originally formed to design silencers for the M16 rifle

M16 rifle

The M16 is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle adapted for both semi-automatic and full-automatic fire. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite, and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. The M16 fires the 5.56×45mm NATO...

. Later, WerBell began work on designs for a low cost, efficient silencer for machine gun

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

s.

In 1967 WerBell partnered with Gordon B. Ingram

Gordon B. Ingram

Gordon B. Ingram was an American inventor and entrepreneur. He was the founder of Military Armaments Company, the creator of the MAC-10 and MAC-11 machine pistols, and is widely credited with popularizing the submachine gun....

, inventor of the MAC-10

MAC-10

The MAC-10 is a highly compact, blowback operated machine pistol developed by Gordon B. Ingram in 1964.-Design:The M-10 was built predominantly from steel stampings...

 submachine gun

Submachine gun

A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...

. They added Werbell's silencer to Ingram's SMG and attempted to market it to the U.S. military for use in the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. The silencer was the M14SS-1, designed for the M14

M14

M14, M-14, or M.14 may refer to:* M-14 , a road connecting Ann Arbor and Detroit* M14 * M14 mine, a United States anti-personnel landmine* AN/M14 incendiary grenade, a United States incendiary grenade...

 rifle, and forty suppressors were sent unofficially to the 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam during early 1969 for combat evaluation, and an undisclosed number were procured under ENSURE

Ensure

Ensure is the brand name of a family of liquid nutritional supplements manufactured by Abbott Laboratories.The beverages are meant to be administered orally, or through nasogastric tubes, directly to the recipient's stomach....

Number 360.1, but the suppressor was not adopted officially.

To obtain capital for manufacturing, Werbell solicited 29 investors for 7 million dollars each into a holding company called Quantum Ordnance Bankers. They created a manufacturing corporation called Military Armament Corporation, and merged it with Quantum and SIONICS. The efforts to sell to the military failed and Werbell lost control of the company.

Current Use

In 2010 the SIONICS name was adopted by a firearms manufacturer in Tucson, AZ, like its namesake, this company manufactures specialized suppressors and rifles designed for the domestic law enforcement market.