Suppressor

A suppressor attachment

A suppressor is a device attached to a firearm to reduce the amount of noise and flash generated by firing the weapon. It generally takes the form of a cylindrically-shaped metal tube that is attached onto the barrel of a firearm, with various internal mechanisms to reduce the sound of firing by slowing the escaping propellant gas, and sometimes by reducing the velocity of the bullet. The point is to keep the user concealed and undetected.

Appearances in Halo

First the suppressor appears in the edited campaign of Halo: Custom Edition. The suppressor also makes an appearance in Halo 2 Vista, and is mentioned in The Art of Halo, on the M7S Caseless Submachine Gun. In the Halo 3: ODST trailer, it is also noted that it had made an appearance attached to the end of an M7S SMG and M6C/SOCOM used by an ODST. In the novels, the suppressor was used in many battles by the SPARTAN-IIs, when they attached it to their MA5Bs, and the suppressed version of the M7 was also used by Staff Sergeants Byrne and Johnson at the beginning of Halo: Contact Harvest.

Trivia

• The original plan for the suppressor, which originated around the time of World War II, was to modify the sound of the weapon firing into a different, unrecognizable sound, rather than to reduce loudness of a discharge, as its name suggests.
• The popular name for the suppressor is "silencer", but this is a misnomer.
• It is unknown if the suppressor is used on other UNSC weapons, such as the M6, or S2-AM series.
• It is also unknown whether if the Covenant has a counterpart to this attachment, though it is unlikely considering the little noise their weapons typically cause and the Covenant's preference for face-to face combat.