Chinese military- suspicious of new caliber?

[nathan]

It boggles me why the PLA returned the captured Indian weapons after routing them in 1962. The video showed FALs, Lee Enfields, sten SMGs, heavy MGs and artillery pieces.
What was Mao thinking when these were war trophies ? Maybe out of goodwill he wanted to tell the Indians, dont tread on us again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XstW0q0efY4

As to the Chinese 5.8 caliber small arms caliber, that would be neat to have. We just dont know much about it. But we know the 6.5 Grendel is much much better.

 

[CornCod]

The Chinese version of the AK-47 was NEVER the main rifle of the Chinese Peoples Army. Back in the 60's and 70's it was a weapon for NCO's and junior officers. From the early eighties on the Tyoe 81 rifle replaced the SKS as the main rifle of the Chinese Peoples Army. Because of the worldwide popularity of the AK series the Chinese made and continue to make millions of AK's for export. They never fell in love with the AK for their own army because the generals were very "American" in their thinking and were firm believers in reletively long-range accuracy. The older generation of Generals cut their teeth on Mausers and always liked both the SKS and Type 81 because they were more accurate than the AK.

 

[nathan]

From what i read the QBZ 5.8 bullpups are mainly issued to Spec Ops, SWAT units and the PAP. The Type 81 is stll the main infantry weapon. And they have the newer Type 03 made of polymer stocks.

 

[Motega]

If we never intended to use captured weapons in any real way why does/did Lake City produce all of those calibers in non-NATO commie calibers?

 

[Sam1911]

why does/did Lake City produce all of those calibers in non-NATO commie calibers?

Which ones?

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I worked in Singapore, developing training for the Singapore Armed Forces. While Singapore is not in China, the population is about 75% Chinese, the descendants of coolies imported by the British to do the scut work. And nowadays, although English is the official language of administration, they are trying to convert to Mandarin and they are "more Chinese than the Chinese."

One thing I noted about them was they are not very good at translating theory into practice -- there is a tendency to develop the "perfect solution" in a vaccuum and then implement it with blinders on.

I suspect this gun and cartridge are an example of that -- a theoretically wonderful combination that doesn't perform in the field quite as well as the designers expected.

 

[Diggers]

From what the OP quoted the Chinese decided on the 5.8 caliber in 1989.

Not exactly a new development. The gun the developed for it sounds like a dog from the quote too. Awkward to use and too many parts?? Just what you don't need in a battle rifle.

 

[oldvet53]

they would replace the slower burning rifle powder with fast burning pistol powder with resulting higher chamber pressure from using the same or higher loads as the rifle munitions would normally use.

 

[nathan]

Watch the video of Chnese military parade in 2009, the 60th anniverasary of PRC 's founding . THey have the Qbz s just almost every troops marching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dLzgPa28Ds

 

[OKcarburetor]

With all this money and ingenuity it's a shame they don't have the freedom to dominate something important like motorsports

 

[Cosmoline]

I'd be interested to hear first hand reports from US service men who've fired these things during exchange exercises.

 

[Shear_stress]

I'd be interested to hear first hand reports from US service men who've fired these things during exchange exercises.

A few QBZ-97s (in 5.56) were imported into Canada before the RCMP put the kibosh on them (after presumably approving them). There are some reviews and videos online. When I get a second I'll see if I can find one.

 

[nathan]

Bangladesh Army, Burmese and Cambodian troops should have them bec they are recipients of Chnese equipments.

 

[HorseSoldier]

If we never intended to use captured weapons in any real way why does/did Lake City produce all of those calibers in non-NATO commie calibers?

They don't. Or at least I've never seen an LC marked round of 7.62x39 or any other communist/former communist caliber.

The stuff my last active duty unit got issued for familiarization training came from the following sources:

7.62x39 Ball -- Yugoslavia or former Yugo nations
7.62x39 Blank -- Russia
5.45x39 Ball -- Bulgaria
5.45x39 Blank -- former East German (if I remember right, never used much of it)
7.62x54 Ball -- Bulgaria
7.62x54 Blank -- Russia
9x18 Mak -- Russian (commercial purchase Wolf)

 

[Vern Humphrey]

If we never intended to use captured weapons in any real way why does/did Lake City produce all of those calibers in non-NATO commie calibers?

They don't. Or at least I've never seen an LC marked round of 7.62x39 or any other communist/former communist caliber.

They did -- but they were never marked LC. Much of that ammo was for use in classified missions, untraceable to the US.