AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
If I recall correctly it said it's for low flying targets with a max range of 2000m altitude and 5000m distance.
View attachment 35065
Clearer photograph of the PLA's next-generation modular rifle family, one of three competing designs. There are at least two additional designs competing for the same rifle tender.
I'm almost tempted to say that these two rifles might even be differing designs...
they seem to have the same stock use the same magazine (of course) and have a similar receiver, but the handguard, grip, barrel all appear different.
Whether those different parts is because both are variants of the same modular family (like shorter one being carbine, longer one being assault rifle) or whether both are actually different rifle families I think is a bit of an open question. I'd be tempted to go with the former, but I'm not entirely sure.
Or maybe both are variants of the same modular family but that they happen to be testing different configurations of that same family in this picture.
The key is that the receiver geometry of the two rifles are essentially identical (even the ejection ports have the same design), meaning that the two are likely from the same family.
Other stuff like stock, grip, handguard, and even muzzle brake components can be easily interchanged and sourced from third party suppliers (MagPul makes a lot of high-quality parts in this area).
Yes, as I said, that is why I'm asking the question.
Obviously the other parts described can be interchanged, but at the same time if these two rifles are part of the same family you'd expect some kind of consistency between parts, especially like the handguard. For example the CSLR17 maintains the same handguard design/geometry for its different variants but uses different lengths of the handguard, yet the handguards for these two rifles are not only different length but seemingly has different configuration as well.
Whether that's indicative of just the way they've gone about producing different parts for different variants of the modular rifle family, or maybe still testing out different parts for different variants before settling on a common design for say the handguard, or if it's indicative of some deeper difference between the two rifles, is what I'm trying to get at.
At the moment I'm tending towards the idea that both are of the same rifle family but that the handguard of the shorter rifle/carbine version has a different pattern of cooling vents because maintaining the same pattern as the longer rifle's handguard for the shorter length may not be practical. And of course pistol grip are obviously interchangeable too.