History

 The M72 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon, also referred to as the Light Anti-Armor Weapon or LAW as well as LAWS Light Anti-Armor Weapons System) is a portable one-shot 66 mm unguided anti-tank weapon, designed in the United States by Paul V. Choate, Charles B. Weeks, and Frank A. Spinale et al. while with the Hesse-Eastern Division of Norris Thermadore, currently produced by Nammo Raufoss AS in Norway.

In early 1963 the LAW was adopted by the United States Army and the United States Marines as their primary individual infantry anti-tank weapon, replacing the M31 HEAT rifle grenade and the M20A1 "Super Bazooka" in the US Army.

It had been intended that in the early 1980s that the M72 would be replaced by the FGR-17 Viper, but this program was canceled by Congress and the M136 AT4 was introduced in its place. In that time period its nearest comparison was the Swedish Pskott m/68 (Miniman) and the French SARPAC.

During World War II, the sudden prominence of tanks and other armored vehicles on the battlefield led to the creation of man-portable weapons that would enable the humble infantryman to successfully deal with the new threat. The first such weapons to be used with limited success were flamethrowers, satchel charges, jerry-rigged landmines and specially designed magnetic hollow charges, but all these weapons needed to get within a couple of meters from the target to be effective, which severely limited said effectiveness and greatly endangered the user.

The U.S. Army then introduced the bazooka on the battlefield, the first true rocket-propelled grenade launcher, which proved devastatingly effective against enemy armor. It was such a success that all involved nations soon bought or copied the bazooka for extensive use on all fronts.

But the bazooka had its drawbacks: large, cumbersome and rather fragile; it needed a dedicated (and trained) two-man team to be used efficiently. Hard-pressed on all fronts, Germany then developed an alternative to the bazooka: the Panzerfaust family of weapons. These one-shot rocket launchers were relatively cheap, needed no particular training (they were so simple of use that they were regularly issued to Volkssturm regiments) and proved remarkably efficient against Russian armor on the eastern front.

The M72 LAW is the descendant of the Panzerfaust: a sturdy, lightweight, easy-of-use one-shot anti-tank rocket launcher.

Singleplayer/Co-Op

In the campaign, the LAW is used to destroy three tanks during the mission "S.O.G." It cannot lock onto the tanks. It is found in a bunker, along with a couple of M60's.

It is available in the Mystery Box and comes with 21 rockets. It is not very useful though, as it creates crawlers and it has a very slow reload. Speed Cola is strongly recommended, as is PhD Flopper on Ascension. The player should replace with weapon as soon as possible or Pack-a-Punch it. When upgraded, it becomes the "M72 Anarchy," featuring a 10 round capacity and a semi-automatic fire mode. The Player will no longer automatically aim down the sights when firing the upgraded version, thus allowing a faster rate of fire, and the splash damage will almost have no effect on the player. The "M72 Anarchy" is much more effective than the un-upgraded version and is often underestimated even though it can down a horde of zombies in higher rounds with only 2-3 shots with power that rivals Porter's X2 Raygun. The only real downfall is that it does not accumulate points as fast as a Raygun (though it's still more than a Thundergun).

Multiplayer

Damage 160 - 70
 
Magazine Size 1 rocket
 
Tier 17
 
Unlocked at 1
 
Cost (Nazi Zombies) 950
 
Starting Ammunition 1 (MP)
 
Maximum Ammunition 4 + 1 (SP), 1 (MP), 2 (with Scavenger Pro, MP)
 
Radius 5.7 meters
 
Used by USMC, SOG
 

The M72 LAW is the only launcher available when Create-A-Class is unlocked. It is capable of both free fire and vehicle lock-on, identical to the AT4 and apart from the amount of rockets available and a few minor aesthetics such as the prepping animation and the reload time, it is exactly the same as the other launchers. When used in conjunction with Scavenger Pro, it can be more versatile than the Strela-3 or the RPG-7, as it is capable of both free-fire and lock-on fire, and will have two rockets, making it capable of destroying most vehicles, even the ones which are able to dodge rockets or deploy flares. However, like all other launchers, Scavenger will not replenish ammunition. Like the RPG, the fired rockets tend to not fire at the exact point the sights show, meaning that it can be difficult to fire at buildings through windows or doors at long ranges. Due to this, firing while moving will most likely make the rocket go off-course and may miss the target or fail to kill them.

Contrary to popular belief, the M72 does not have smaller blast radius or lower damage then the RPG. Similar to the RPG, It does 160-70 damage with a 5.4M blast radius. It drops about 16.5 damage per every meter, meaning that the lethal blast radius is about 3.5M, as the damage would drop to 102-112.

Its primary limitations are its low ammunition and the rather long "switch-to" time, as the player must go through a "prepping" animation similar to that of the AT4 found in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Challenges