It is a weird piece of gear. If you saw a China Lake grenade launcher leaning against a wall in a grainy 1970s photograph, you might actually mistake it for a chunky, oversized shotgun. That’s exactly what the Navy SEALs wanted. In the thick, humid jungles of Vietnam, having to reload an M79 "Bloop Tube" after every single shot was a death sentence if you stumbled into a Viet Cong ambush. You’d fire one 40mm round, crack the action, furbish for another gold-capped shell, and pray nobody moved in the four seconds you were empty.
The China Lake changed that. It gave a single operator four rounds of high-explosive 40mm thump as fast as they could rack the pump.
Most people think "China Lake" is just a name, like a brand. It’s actually the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) in the California desert. In 1968, the guys there basically took the concept of a Remington 870 shotgun and chambered it for grenades. It’s heavy. It’s rare. Honestly, it’s one of the most lusted-after "unicorns" in the small arms world because so few were ever made. We’re talking maybe 50 units total, though some researchers suggest the number could be slightly higher if you count the prototypes that didn't survive the testing phase.
Why the China Lake Grenade Launcher Exists at All
The SEALs were the primary drivers here. During the Vietnam War, the "Men with Green Faces" operated in small teams where firepower-to-weight ratio was everything. If a six-man squad got pinched, they needed to make the enemy believe they were fighting a platoon. The M79 was accurate but slow. The XM148 (an early under-barrel launcher) was a mechanical nightmare that broke if you looked at it wrong.
So, the engineers at China Lake got to work.
They built a pump-action system. You’ve got three rounds in a tubular magazine above the barrel and one in the chamber. That’s four grenades. Think about that for a second. In a world of single-shot launchers, a SEAL carrying a China Lake was essentially a walking piece of light artillery. They could bracket a target, drop two rounds short and two rounds long, and saturate an area in under five seconds.
It’s surprisingly light for what it is, too. Despite the bulk, it weighs about 8 pounds empty. That’s lighter than a modern M4 with all the "tactical" junk attached to it today. They used a lot of aluminum to keep the weight down, which was great for the guy carrying it through a swamp but not so great for the long-term durability of the weapon.
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The Mechanics of a 40mm Pump Action
The guts of the China Lake grenade launcher are fascinatingly simple but plagued by a specific physics problem. See, 40mm grenades are big. They aren't like 12-gauge shotgun shells. They have a very specific "high-low" propulsion system. When you try to feed these blunt, heavy projectiles from a tube into a chamber using a pump action, they tend to get grumpy.
If the operator didn't rack the pump with enough "oomph," the heavy 40mm round could hang up. In a gunfight, a short-stroke on a China Lake was a disaster.
Why didn't they just make more?
- Manufacturing complexity: Each one was basically hand-built.
- The M203 arrived: The Army and Navy started leaning toward the M203 under-barrel launcher because it didn't require a dedicated "grenadier" who couldn't carry a rifle.
- Structural stress: Aluminum receivers don't love the recoil of 40mm rounds over hundreds of cycles.
- Niche use: It was a Special Operations tool, not a general-issue grunt weapon.
Interestingly, the leaf sight on the top is almost identical to the one on the M79. If you knew how to aim a Bloop Tube, you knew how to aim a China Lake. But the balance was totally different. With three rounds sitting in the tube, the gun is front-heavy. As you fire and the magazine empties, the center of gravity shifts back toward the shooter. It takes a lot of practice to remain accurate while the weight of the weapon is literally disappearing in your hands.
Real Combat History and the SEAL Teams
There are legends about these things in the Mekong Delta. Men like Kim Fawcett and James "Pat" McTigue are often cited in historical records and SEAL memoirs as some of the few who actually humped the China Lake on missions. It wasn't just about the HE (High Explosive) rounds, either. They used buckshot rounds—basically 40mm shotgun shells filled with large pellets—and "beehive" rounds.
Imagine a pump-action shotgun, but the barrel is the size of a soda can. That is terrifying.
One of the biggest misconceptions is that the China Lake was a "secret" weapon that stayed secret for decades. It wasn't really secret; it was just rare. Because the Navy didn't have a formal "program of record" for it, the guns were essentially property of the teams. When they broke, they were often stripped for parts or just sat in an armory until someone decided to get rid of them.
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Today, only a handful of original China Lakes are known to exist. You can find one at the U.S. Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. There’s another at the Vietnam War Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, likely captured during the fall of Saigon. Seeing one in person is a trip because you realize how "homemade" they look compared to a modern Milkor MGL.
Modern Successors and the "Noveske" Connection
For years, the China Lake was a dead end. But then, in the early 2000s, there was a resurgence of interest. Companies like Airtronic and even the legendary Brian Noveske's outfit toyed with the idea of bringing the pump-action 40mm back. They fixed the feeding issues and used modern 7075 aluminum to ensure the receivers wouldn't crack.
The "New Generation" China Lake launchers were pitched to MARSOC and other SOF units. They had Picatinny rails and collapsible stocks. They looked cool. But the reality of modern warfare had changed.
The military now loves the Milkor M32A1, which is a six-shot revolver-style launcher. It's bulkier than the China Lake, but it can fire much longer rounds—like specialized tear gas, non-lethal, or extended-range shells—that won't fit in the China Lake’s tube magazine. The tube magazine limits you to the standard-length "HE" grenades. If you have a funky, long parachute flare round, it won't cycle through a pump action.
Sorting Fact from Fiction
You’ll hear people online say the China Lake was used by the SAS or that it was a standard-issue weapon for certain Ranger units. Nope. Not true. It was almost exclusively a Navy SEAL and UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) toy. There’s also a rumor that it was prone to exploding. Again, basically a myth. The real issue was that the "lifter" (the part that moves the grenade from the tube to the chamber) was fragile.
If you dropped the gun on its bottom, you could bend the lifter, and then you just had a very heavy club.
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Another thing: the sound. The China Lake doesn't sound like a movie grenade launcher. It has a very distinct clack-thump. The pump mechanism is loud, and the 40mm round leaving the barrel is more of a "pop" than a "boom." It’s only the explosion at the other end that makes the noise people expect.
Actionable Insights for Historians and Enthusiasts
If you’re researching the China Lake grenade launcher or looking to find one, you have to be careful with "reproduction" models. There are several high-end airsoft replicas and "37mm flare" versions that look identical to the real thing but are functionally different.
For the serious collector or historian:
- Visit the SEAL Museum: If you want to see the real deal, Fort Pierce is the only reliable place. Look at the wear on the pump—you can see where the SEALs actually used these things.
- Read the After-Action Reports: Search the Texas Tech University Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive. You can occasionally find declassified AARs that mention "multi-shot 40mm launchers" used in specific operations in the Rung Sat Special Zone.
- Check Serial Ranges: If you ever encounter one in a private collection (extremely rare), the serial numbers are usually non-standard or hand-stamped. Original China Lakes don't have the polished finish of a modern firearm; they have a rugged, utilitarian "parkerized" or anodized look.
- Understand the NFA: In the US, a real 40mm China Lake is a "Destructive Device." Every single HE round is also a "Destructive Device" requiring a $200 tax stamp. That’s why you mostly see 37mm versions in the civilian world—they are considered "signaling devices" and don't require the same paperwork.
The China Lake remains a testament to what happens when you give smart engineers a problem and a machine shop. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't widely produced, but for a brief moment in the jungles of Southeast Asia, it was the most feared shoulder-fired weapon on the planet. It’s a piece of "manual" tech in an increasingly digital world, and honestly, there's something respectable about that.
The era of the pump-action grenade launcher is mostly over, replaced by high-capacity drums and under-barrel systems. But for those who know their history, the China Lake will always be the original king of the 40mm thump.
To really get the full picture, look into the development of the EX 41 "Caltrop" project—it was the 1990s attempt to fix the China Lake's flaws. It failed too, but it proves that the military never quite gave up on the dream of a pump-action grenade launcher. Modern shooters might prefer their optics and lasers, but there's no substitute for the raw, mechanical reliability of a pump.
If you want to track down the technical manuals or more specific blueprints, your best bet is searching the Naval History and Heritage Command archives under "Experimental Ordnance 1965-1975." Most of the internal NOTS memos have been declassified by now, offering a glimpse into the specific metallurgical failures they faced during the prototype phase. It’s a rabbit hole, but for a gun this legendary, it’s worth the dive.