It was developed by Austria Metal Works in Brno from their earlier, rejected, 8 cm project.

It was a rigid-recoil, smooth-bore, breech-loading design that had to be levered around to aim at new targets.

After an evaluation on 23 November 1915 it was deemed superior to the German designs already in service (10.5 cm Luftminenwerfer M 15 and 15 cm Luftminenwerfer M 15 M. E.) in range and accuracy and a batch of 100 mortars and 50,000 bombs was ordered at the beginning of 1916.

In addition to Austria Metal Works it was produced by Brand & L'Huillier and the machine factory at Brno-Köningsfeld.

Some improvements must have been made over the course of the production run because late-war documents refer to the original design as the M 16a (alte?