Silencer Saturday #381: Engaged Industries Operator 5.56 Suppressor

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to TFB’s Silencer Saturday, brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturers of the new YHM R45 Multi-Host Suppressor. This week, we’ll be giving you an overview of the Engaged Industries Operator 5.56 suppressor and my thoughts on it so far.

More Silencer Saturday @ TFB:

• Silencer Saturday #379: The Ultra Lightweight TiOn Dragoon 7.62 QD
• Silencer Saturday #378: IWI Get Into The Silencer Game
• Silencer Saturday #377: BOE Suppression Mod 1S
• Silencer Saturday #376: The Curious (Legal) Case Of George Peterson

Silencer Saturday #381: Engaged Industries Operator 5.56 – A Fresh Take on Low Back Pressure

It continues to surprise me (in a good way) that new suppressor companies are popping up all over the place to take part in this new wave of suppressor ownership in the United States. I’ve been putting a lot of rounds through the new Engaged Industries Operator 5.56, one of two flagship models for the recently birthed suppressor company out of Missouri and to spoil the rest of the article - I’m pretty impressed with it so far. The “gimmick” that Mr. Mike Slack, the Suppressor Engineer behind both the Operator 5.56 and the Recon 7.62, has developed takes advantage of what he calls “Vacuum Expansion Technology” to eliminate most of the gas blowback/back pressure typically generated by legacy model suppressors.

Okay, So What Is Vacuum Expansion Technology?

From my very limited understanding of fluid dynamics, at its core, Vacuum Expansion technology, as implemented in the Engaged Industries Operator 5.56 suppressor, is a gas management system integrated into the VLB25 baffle stack. According to an explanation by Mike on a recent Edition of TFB’s Behind the Gun Podcast, the technology achieves this by strategically manipulating gas flow within the suppressor, compressing gases at the distal (front) end, and venting them through the endcap.

Unlike flow-through suppressors (e.g., HUXWRX Flow 556K, etc) that use open lattice structures, Vacuum Expansion relies on a tailored baffle stack to achieve its results. This makes it a unique hybrid, balancing sound suppression with gas management in a lightweight titanium/stainless package that can take a beating without punishing you for doing so. What’s especially unique from my testing so far is that this performance is much more noticeable during rapid fire and on short-barreled rifles, such as my 10.5” PSA Battle Link SBR. Mike says his Operator 5.56 is rated for limited full-auto fire, meaning 100 rounds before cooldown, which again puts this design sort of in a middle ground between recreational and heavier use.

Range Performance

I don’t have an exact round count like I had wanted when I started testing the Operator 5.56. During my first range session with the suppressor, I put about 250 rounds through the can over the course of an afternoon on two different rifles - a 16” Troy and the previously mentioned budget SBR. Simply put, this first session demonstrated to me that there was little performance drop, if any, by shortening the barrel length. The tone of the suppressor itself I can only describe as low, and without any of the typical sharper tones you get out of some dedicated 5.56 suppressors. One last note from this first range session is that the Stealth LoK QD system is good at resisting carbon lock, and stays firmly in place throughout repeated mag dumps.

My second and third range trips with the suppressor were much more fun, this time assisted by an FRT trigger so we could test the Operator's “limited full-auto” rating. While not exactly full auto, the suppressor held up magnificently through two back-to-back 40-rounders with the FRT installed, and while the suppressor heated up quickly and stayed hot for a while, after allowing it to cool it was still just as easy to take it off the Stealth LoK mount and replacing it for another set of mag-dumps with the FRT trigger installed. Several of us who did this noticed that the suppressor did a great job of keeping gas away from the shooter's face even during this high rate of suppressed fire. In fact, I think this is the least gassed out I have ever felt from this sort of setup at this rate of fire - color me impressed.

Final Thoughts

I’m not quite done testing the Operator 5.56. I’ve shot my fair share of suppressors in virtually every configuration and this is one of the few times shooting one made me say “wow” to myself. In addition, the Vacuum Expansion technology has genuinely piqued my interest in a niche field that is, quite frankly, very saturated right now with everyone trying to find something novel to offer the end user. I’m interested to see what the inside of the suppressor looks like after a couple of thousand rounds have been run through it.

In closing, it’s uplifting for me to see genuine innovation from guys like Mike Slack at Engaged Industries. It seems that the whole suppressor industry has somewhat banded together to reduce the amount of gas, and therefore lead exposure, we’re getting during shooting which means a lot for high-volume shooters like military, law enforcement, competitors, and casual shooters who just love the added benefits that suppressors offer us at the range. Keep an eye out for the Operator 5.56 in some of my future articles like an upcoming Rimfire Report article covering the recently released Bergara BMR Carbon .17 HMR.