Halcón Model 1943

The Buenos Aires firm of Fabrica de Armas Halcón SATYC was founded in 1941 to produce small arms for the civilian and military markets. In 1943 the company developed a submachine gun, which became the first domestically-designed SMG to enter production in Argentina. This gun was offered in both .45 ACP and 9x19mm Parabellum, for the police and army respectively. It was a blowback gun with a loose firing pin, spring-loaded through the bolt face, firing from an open bolt. The cocking slot was covered by a rectangular dust cover built onto the cocking handle, an idea taken from the Beretta 38A. The distinctive finned barrel of the Halcón SMG showed influence from the Thompson, with an oversized six-slot compensator fitted to the muzzle, the advantages of which are said to have been negligible. The gun also featured a long magazine housing that was designed to act as the hand grip, as there was no wooden fore-end underneath the barrel. A final unique feature of the design was the safety activated by a push-in button at the front of the trigger guard, which released a bolt stop.

In 1946 the design was lightened and simplified on request of the Argentinian air force, as a weapon for parachutists. This new model was known as the Model Aeronautica. The unusual wooden hybrid stock of the standard model was swapped out for a basic pistol grip and underfolding wire stock. The barrel was shortened, and the muzzle compensator was changed to a smaller four-slot version. An adjustable tangent rear sight was added. Interestingly the long magazine housing was eliminated entirely, so the user would have to grip onto the magazine directly, which was a method liable to cause feed issues.

In 1949 a final model was produced which was in 9mm only. It had an improved curved magazine with an extended 36-round capacity but was otherwise the same as the previous models. It lasted a year in production before the entire line was discontinued in 1950. Although the Halcón SMGs were adopted by the Argentinian army, air force, and police, they were never in high demand and only about 6,000 were ever produced. Compared to other SMGs developed in the 1940s, the Halcón was very expensive, and was excessively heavy at almost 13lb.

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