Studies In the Operational Negation of Insurgents and Counter-Subversion
founded in 1966
- 1966 founded by Mitchell WerBell
- producing firearm suppressors for the M16 and M14
- January 1968 first patents
- 1969 Gordon B. Ingram hired as chief engineer
Sionics
1655 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
- 1970 They created a manufacturing corporation called Military Armament Corporation, and merged it with Quantum and SIONICS
About SIONICS
SIONICS, short for Studies in the Operational Negation of Insurgents and Counter-Subversion, was a suppressor company founded in the 1960s by Mitchell WerBell III, a former Office of Strategic Services (OSS) officer. The company originally designed suppressors for the M16 rifle and then worked on low-cost suppressors for military rifles and machine guns, including the M14SS-1 for the M14. About forty of those units went to the U.S. Army’s 9th Infantry Division for field testing in early 1969.
SIONICS matters to firearms history because of its link to the MAC-10. In 1967 WerBell partnered with Gordon B. Ingram, the designer of the compact submachine gun, and fitted SIONICS suppressors to Ingram’s design. WerBell then formed the Military Armament Corporation and merged it with SIONICS and the Quantum holding company, aiming to sell the suppressed submachine gun to the military. Those efforts did not succeed, and WerBell lost control of the company. The SIONICS name was later used by SIONICS Weapon Systems in Tucson, Arizona, an AR-15 maker with no connection to the original firm beyond the name.
Key Facts
- 1960s: SIONICS founded by Mitchell WerBell III
- 1967: WerBell partnered with Gordon B. Ingram, designer of the MAC-10
- Early 1969: About forty M14SS-1 suppressors sent to the Army’s 9th Infantry Division for testing
- Later: SIONICS merged with Quantum into the Military Armament Corporation
Sources
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