Chinese military armed with a machine gun QBZ-191
At the same time, the designation QBZ-191 is not final, the machine will probably be officially adopted by the PLA under a different designation. According to the American publication of the military-political theme of The National Interest, officially the machine can be adopted by the designations QBZ-17 or QBZ-19, where the figure will indicate the year of development weapons, as previously happened with the QBZ-95 bullpup circuit machine.
China will abandon the machine QBZ-95
Demonstrated at a military parade in Beijing on October 1, the new machine gun is expected to replace the QBZ-95. The latter has been in service with the Chinese army for over 20 years and is the most massive small arms in the country's armed forces. Refusal from the machine, made in the bullpup layout, fits into the general world practice. This decision has been reached not only in China in the past few years. Despite the fact that no one puts an end to such small arms, more and more large operators are abandoning the bullpup assault rifles. Recent examples include France, which has decided to replace its FAMAS rifle with a new classic HK-416 assault rifle designed by Heckler & Koch.
The development of the QBZ-95 light automatic rifle was completed in the 1995 year. In the same year, mass production of new weapons began. For the first time, a bullpup machine was introduced to the general public in 1997, when the Chinese administration regained control of Hong Kong. The new garrison was armed with the Chinese garrison of Hong Kong. In total, three basic modifications of this weapon were developed for the armed forces of the Celestial Empire: a standard QBZ-95 assault rifle with a sector magazine on 30 cartridges; QBZ-95B with a shortened barrel, primarily designed for arming units of the Chinese Navy and special units; QBB-95 LSW - light machine gun with a heavier longer barrel and drum magazine on 80 rounds.
In the 2010-2011 years, an updated version of the assault rifle with improved ergonomics was spread, this model was designated QBB-95-1. In addition to improving ergonomics, the designers worked to improve the strength of plastic parts, achieved an increase in barrel life, and also introduced a new optical sight. In addition to improving the ergonomics and reliability of the product, the machine was adapted to use the most advanced cartridge at that time, 5,8x42 mm DBP10. Despite the fact that the Chinese military traditionally did not comment on the shortcomings of their weapons, Chinese bloggers often criticized the QBB-95 assault rifles, listing all the shortcomings that are characteristic of weapons of this kind.
The first hints that the PLA was looking for a replacement for its standard QBB-95 assault rifle appeared back in the 2016-2017 years, when the first two images of the future assault rifle were published in one of the Chinese military blogs. Later, this post attracted the attention of American journalists, including the publication Popular Mechanics, and they talked about weapons in the media. A few days before the parade in Beijing, timed to coincide with the 70 anniversary of the PRC, several photos of the new weapons appeared on the network again. The newly presented samples had a pronounced similarity with the photographs shown two years ago. And finally, on 1 on October 2019, thousands of Chinese soldiers marched in the parade, armed with new machine guns.
New Chinese automatic machine QBZ-191
A distinctive feature of the new weapon is its modular design, which is typical for many modern assault rifles. QBZ-191 can be easily transformed to solve various combat missions. The fact that the new assault rifle is distinguished by a more convenient layout and the concept of a modular design was emphasized even by the announcers of Chinese television, who highlighted, among other things, the versatility, reliability and increased firepower of the new assault rifle. At the same time, experts have already noted the similarity of the new Chinese assault rifle with the HK-416, this model of small arms was adopted by the United States Marine Corps under the designation M27, as well as an combat assault rifle for special operations forces FN SCAR.
The new machine will be presented in three main versions, equipped with different trunks. The version with a barrel length of 10,5 inches (267 mm) will be designated PDW. This machine will be designed primarily for arming the crews of military vehicles and other equipment. The bulk of the infantry will be armed with a machine gun with a barrel length of 14,5 inches (368 mm). In addition, an elongated heavy barrel will be available, which will turn the machine into a weapon designed to equip snipers in the compartment, providing shooters with confident destruction of targets at a distance of up to 600 meters. At the same time, the effective firing range of the PDW version is estimated at 300 meters, of a standard machine gun - 400 meters. The stated rate of fire at the level of 750 rounds per minute.
The new machine will receive a butterfly valve and shock-free automation system by removing powder gases from the bore with a short piston stroke, the Kalashnikov magazine reports. The switch of fire modes, which is controlled by the thumb, allows you to fire with single shots and in fully automatic mode. At the same time, American journalists note that the Chinese refused to use the fire regime with a cut-off of three shots. It is also noted that with the new machine gun it will be possible to use standard stores from the QBB-95 assault rifles.
The new Chinese assault rifle meets today's popular concept, when the armament of infantrymen should easily adapt to the solution of various combat missions. In addition to the replaceable barrels and Picatinny trunks, this is facilitated by the use of a telescopic butt adjustable in length, it is noted that it will have 4-5 fixed values (folding the butt is not provided). Also, the new Chinese assault rifle will receive a long Picatinny rail, mounted on top of the receiver and forend made of aluminum. The presence of such a bar allows you to set a large number of different sights, while mechanical sights, in particular the front sight, are made folding.
Chinese cartridge 5,8X42 mm
The new Chinese machine gun, like its predecessor, uses an intermediate cartridge 5,8x42 mm. Work on the creation of this ammunition began in China in the mid-1980's. When developing their own cartridge, Chinese engineers took into account all the experience in creating similar low-pulse intermediate cartridges, which by that time had already been accumulated by the military of NATO countries and the Soviet Union. The new cartridge was originally developed for a wide range of small arms: machine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles. According to the assurances of the Chinese side, this ammunition is superior to similar NATO cartridges of the 5,56x45 mm and the Soviet cartridge 5,45x39 mm.
According to the developers, the Chinese 5,8x42 mm cartridge has better ballistics than similar low-pulse intermediate cartridges, a more gentle flight path and more bullet energy at medium and long distances. The advantages of the cartridge also include greater penetration compared to standard NATO cartridges 5,56x45 mm. At the same time, the superiority of the Chinese cartridge does not seem to be any significant. It is no coincidence that for all the years of production, he was not interested in other countries, the ammunition 5,8X42 mm is still produced only in China.
Officially in the arsenal of the PLA, a new cartridge was adopted back in 1987 under the designation DBP-87. All ammunition of this caliber have a bottle-shaped sleeve with a groove. The standard cartridge, which is used by machine gunners, is equipped with a bullet with a steel core weighing 4,15 grams. The initial flight speed of a similar bullet is 930 m / s, and the energy of the bullet is 1795 J. Specially for machine guns and sniper rifles, a cartridge with a heavy long-range bullet was developed, the mass of which grew to 5 grams and muzzle energy increased to 2000 J. It is believed that the new machine can get updated ammunition caliber 5,8 mm, having the best characteristics at medium and long range firing.
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