China Lake

The China Lake is a pump-action grenade launcher that appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified.

Campaign
The China Lake is first used in "S.O.G." in a tunnel area near the part with the mortared out forest and is later used on a jeep while destroying tanks. It can be found in all three weapon caches in "Numbers". It is also seen in the mission "Crash Site" when in the crashed plane fuselage, with Woods questioning why the Russians would be using American weapons. The China Lake in singleplayer has a four round capacity, unlike in multiplayer and zombies where it only has two rounds.

Multiplayer
The China Lake is a secondary weapon, and the last weapon unlocked for Create-A-Class, unlocked at Level 48. The China Lake has a two round capacity, and is pump-action. The pumping action is very slow, thus lowering the rate of fire as compared to a pump action shotgun.

When the player hipfires the China Lake, the sights will be brought up before firing, similar to that of the Thumper in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, as well all other launchers in Black Ops. The player will have to lead the shot due to the gun's delay between pulling the trigger and it actually firing. When using Scavenger Pro the player will start with two extra grenades in reserve. With this extra ammo, it is important to note that reloading the gun after each shot is actually faster than pumping it, especially when using Sleight of Hand. Using this technique significantly increases the China Lake's rate of fire.

The China Lake does 155-25 damage with a 7.62 m blast radius. It drops about 17 damage per every meter, meaning the lethal blast radius is about 3.22 m. It is rare to find this online due to the very high level the weapon is unlocked at, and that the grenade launcher attachment performs the same function and has identical damage, yet does not take up the secondary, reloads slightly faster, has easier accessibility, and does not require the user to aim down the sights to use it. However, the grenade launcher can only be used with Assault Rifles, meaning that a player who is not using an Assault Rifle can use the China Lake as a substitute.

A good strategy is to use the China Lake and the underbarrel Grenade Launcher in objective based game modes, because it gives the player 4 grenades (assuming the player has Scavenger Pro). Grenades are useful to clear enemies from an objective (i.e. In Domination, where groups of enemies are stationed in one objective), even though one has to be aware of the enemy using Flak Jacket, as they cannot be easily killed with explosives.

Zombies
The China Lake is available in all Black Ops Zombies maps, through the Mystery Box. It is very effective for clearing out large waves but disorients the user after firing too close, due to shellshock. This drawback can be fixed by using PhD Flopper.

When Pack-a-Punched, the China Lake is called the China Beach. The China Beach holds five grenades and cycles faster, does not need to aim down sights to fire a shot, and reduces explosive shellshock to the player. While it is still an effective weapon, it is still considered inferior compared to the M72 Anarchy in terms of ammo, utility and damage. Overall, it is a poor choice for close-quarters combat.

The China Lake is also available as a power-up in Dead Ops Arcade. Here it seems to be automatic, but it is still pump action as the player can see the character model pumping the weapon before firing, but much faster. The China Lake only goes a small distance before exploding, which allows zombies to get close if the player is not aiming in the right direction. The China Lake is effective when firing into large masses of zombies on lower waves. According to the opening cutscene of "Five" it is John F. Kennedy's weapon of choice.

Trivia

 * When it's out of ammo, the China Lake switches faster than normal.
 * Reloading one grenade takes around the same amount of time as pumping, making the launcher best to reload after every shot, in a manner similar to the M79 Thumper.
 * John F. Kennedy is seen with a China Lake in the opening cutscene of "Five".
 * The China Lake is absent from the Wii version of Zombies.
 * The China Lake's reload and pumping speeds are much faster in campaign than in multiplayer and Zombies.
 * It is possible to shoot twice without pumping. After the first shot just before it pumps, player needs to sprint forward and stop and he/she will be able to fire a second shot. This is not very useful, but could possibly save the player's life.