First Photos of Chinese PLA New Standard Rifle and What We Know So Far

Back in May 2017, TFB reported about the Chinese PLA possibly replacing the QBZ-95-1 bullpup with a “traditional” layout rifle. Today, two photos of the Chinese new standard issue rifle have appeared on social media. The rifle is likely going to be revealed on the October 1st during the Military Parade dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Although the official name of the rifle still remains unknown, the new rifle is likely named ‘QBZ-191’. The top picture of this article shows the carbine variant of the new rifle family which has a 10.5 ″ barrel. The carbine is aimed to replace the QBZ-95B and it’s mostly going to be used as a PDW for vehicle crews, not front line soldiers. The infantry rifle has a 14.5″ barrel and there is also a longer barreled marksman rifle.

As to previously known the new Chinese rifle is still chambered in the standard 5.8x42mm round. However, it is confirmed the PLA has adopted new 5.8x42mm rounds that have better performance on medium to long-range. The new rifle has been given huge hope of replacing the currently in service QBZ-95-1 which is the bullpup standard rifle used by PLA for over 25 years.

The new rifle has a full-length Picatinny rail on the top. The pictures also show soldiers using the new combat optic during practice. The optic seems to have a fiber optic illuminated reticle since the light fiber structure similar to the ACOG can be found on top of the optic. The zoom and whether there are second reticle illumination is unknown. Guessing from the few other reticle designs released by China, this optic may also keep the reticle design that mixed the ACOG reticle and the PSO-1 style rangefinder reticle.

The rear sight is a detachable flip-up BUIS with the fixed flip-up front sight. Some Chinese internet sources claimed the new rifle will have M-LOK handguard, but it turns out to be a more traditional handguard.

According to TFB’s Chinese source, the new rifle has semi-auto and full-auto but no burst-fire. The magazine has a similar appearance as the QBZ-95-1 mags, but the reinforcement ribs look flatter and make it look like a PMAG. The effective range of the carbine version is 300 meters, for the rifle version it’s 400 meters, and the rifle fires at a rate of fire of 750 rpm.