Chinese Grenade Launcher

if it's really supposed to be a designated "sniper's grenade launcher", might as well use explosive rounds. guaranteed effectiveness

airsuperiority said:

if it's really supposed to be a designated "sniper's grenade launcher", might as well use explosive rounds. guaranteed effectiveness

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What grenade launcher doesn't use explosive rounds?

"Sniper" is an odd description and suggests something more surgical. A grenade is contrary to surgical. So I would have to believe if it uses "sniper" it's talking more about the range aspect.

AssassinsMace said:

"Sniper" is an odd description and suggests something more surgical. A grenade is contrary to surgical. So I would have to believe if it uses "sniper" it's talking more about the range aspect.

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A 2000lb LGB makes are far bigger bang than a 35mm grenade, but does anyone have any issue describing the LGB as a surgical weapon? 'Sniper' has always placed more emphasis on accuracy over range, as 'sniper' comes from the word 'snipe', which is a tiny game bird that requires great skill to hit.

Now I would not expect this weapon to have true sniper rifle, or maybe even DMR kind of accuracy, but I would expect it to be accurate enough to at least be effective at engaging human-sized targets out to the limits of it's effective range.

The long barrel, lack as far as I can see of integrated iron sights, built in bi-pod and slight design which likely rules out automatic firing all suggest that this weapon was designed with accuracy and range over mobility and rate of fire in mind.

Do you think this kind of weapon is useful for special forces?

plawolf said:

A 2000lb LGB makes are far bigger bang than a 35mm grenade, but does anyone have any issue describing the LGB as a surgical weapon? 'Sniper' has always placed more emphasis on accuracy over range, as 'sniper' comes from the word 'snipe', which is a tiny game bird that requires great skill to hit.

Now I would not expect this weapon to have true sniper rifle, or maybe even DMR kind of accuracy, but I would expect it to be accurate enough to at least be effective at engaging human-sized targets out to the limits of it's effective range.

The long barrel, lack as far as I can see of integrated iron sights, built in bi-pod and slight design which likely rules out automatic firing all suggest that this weapon was designed with accuracy and range over mobility and rate of fire in mind.

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The difference is LGB is guided.

What I could read from the site I got this from is this was just designed to do what a normal grenade launcher does such as getting them into bunkers and buildings but just at a longer distance. So the only difference is range and relevant accuracy given the extended range.

In some cases Sniper teams used by western Armies deploy with the sniper packing the main sniper weapon well the spotter will carry a conventional carbine like say a M4 fitted with a under barrel grenade launcher as a fall back in case the enemy comes at them.
Mounting a grenade launcher too a sniper rifle is not advisable as the added weight would cause shift of impact. This looks more like a conventional rocket or other propelled explosive weapon. I have heard form time too time about some mortars use a flatter trajectory too be aimed into structures as antipersonnel anti barricade weapons so have some other weapons like the Carl Gustav and a number of older RPG types This seems too be the case here.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

In some cases Sniper teams used by western Armies deploy with the sniper packing the main sniper weapon well the spotter will carry a conventional carbine like say a M4 fitted with a under barrel grenade launcher as a fall back in case the enemy comes at them.
Mounting a grenade launcher too a sniper rifle is not advisable as the added weight would cause shift of impact. This looks more like a conventional rocket or other propelled explosive weapon. I have heard form time too time about some mortars use a flatter trajectory too be aimed into structures as antipersonnel anti barricade weapons so have some other weapons like the Carl Gustav and a number of older RPG types This seems too be the case here.

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The Carl Gustav is technically a recoilless gun and is different than what this seems to be. This grenade launcher seems to resemble more like the Barret XM109, which is essentially a sniper rifle that shoots a 25 mm grenade at 'high velocities' or around 425 meters per second (not that high, but it's probably for the sake of recoil). According to Worldguns, it fires a 35x32mm grenade out to an effective range of 1000 m at a muzzle velocity of some 190 meters per second and can carry a HE/HE-I or a HE-DP round. In comparison, the Barret XM109 can fire a 25x59mm grenade out to an effective range of 2000 m at a muzzle velocity of, as stated above, 425 meters per second and can also carry the same types of munitions.

Worldguns also says that the 35mm grenade has a lethality range of some 10 meters which sounds about right given a 35mm grenade's size, but it seems that the two weapons were for different purposes, with the XM109 designed for specifically anti-vehicular roles. A quote from Global Security:

The requirement for a 20-25mm anti-materiel rifle first appeared in the special operations forces community in the 1990s, following experiences in Operation Desert Storm. US Special Operations Command put out Directive 70-2, a general directive for the development of a heavy anti-materiel rifle in 1992. A Joint Operational Requirements Document for a Heavy Sniper Rifle was approved on 16 March 1994. The Objective Sniper Weapon was developed as a unique "payload" gun designed specifically to interdict special operations forces material targets: such as C4I SAR equipment, support facilities, light vehicles, and crew-served weapons.

The findings of a weaponeering study conducted by the Joint Service Small Arms Program were released in 2002. The test compared the number of rounds fired from a prototype Objective Sniper Weapon to the number fired from a Barrett M82A1 rifle required to disable either a "Big Bird" radar van or a BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle. At 600 meters, each weapon required the same number of rounds to disable the radar van. At 800 meters, the Objective Sniper Weapon required half as many rounds as the .50 caliber M82A1 to disable to van. At 600 meters, the .50 caliber M82A1 required 2.5 times more rounds than the Objective Sniper Weapon to disable the BMP-3. At 800 meters, the .50 caliber M82A1 required 2 times more rounds than the Objective Sniper Weapon to disable to vehicle.

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(The Objective Sniper Weapon is another name for the XM109.)

The only other major difference between the two is weight, the XM109 weighs about 6 kg more than this Chinese grenade launcher, unloaded though (since they both carry about 5 rounds, the ammunition doesn't really make that big of a dent on the Chinese grenade launcher's weight).

In any case, this leads me to conclude that this Chinese grenade launcher (I'll remember it's designation eventually) isn't designed for the long range anti-materiel role but morso for the medium range anti-materiel and indeed, anti-personnel role. It's grenade preforms better than the XM109's too (the 35 mm grenade can penetrate some 8 cm of RHA at some unstated range, the 25 mm can penetrate some 3.8 cm of RHA at 1200 m range.)

plawolf said:

What grenade launcher doesn't use explosive rounds?

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oops. im referring to .50cal tipped with explosives. sorry for the confusion....and for the record, is there even such a thing as .50cal tipped with explosives?

oh and just to troll, i thought of baton rounds

I have noticed QLZ-87 being used in many battlefields latety, too bad that we don't know how many have been sold.

0:06 Syrian rebel firing QLZ-87


0:52 Chad army looking destroyed rebel cars and you can see familiar weapon.