QBZ-191 service rifle family

I think it's time we have a dedicated thread for this topic because we don't want the general PLA small arms thread to be muddled with such an important topic as well as other ones. Also having a single thread so people don't ask "what's this rifle" when we get pictures of it over the next few months will be useful.

So to start off. Quite a few years ago we had some rumours of a new modular assault rifle being developed for the PLA. We had some pictures of a couple of competing designs with similar features.
A screenshot of a study also showed what appeared to be a rather modular-capable looking rifle that may have been related to the new assault rifle project.

One of the Canadian arms importers from China also directly stated that production of the new rifle would be imminent, back from 2017.

In Zhuhai 2016 we also saw the revelation of a new export oriented modular assault rifle family called CS/LR 17. It had a lot of features that were new for PLA export oriented rifles, including a full length top rail, being modular in terms of barrel length and calibre, a single piece handguard, as well as having a stock that was capable of both folding and having position change.

Many of these features correspond with the previous pictures of the suspected new assault rifle competitors and also with similarities to the study document showing a concept of a new modular rifle.
I suspected (and continue to suspect) that CS/LR17 may have been an export rifle developed from some of the technologies and/or tooling and experience gained from participating in the new PLA modular service rifle competition.

Finally, as of 2018/early 2019, we also have some new developments.

In Zhuhai 2018, we saw a redesigned CS/LR17 that has altered the details of the original 2016 CS/LR17, but still maintains a lot of the common concepts and features on the original. The new CS/LR17 also looks like it has an ambidextrous fire select.
Overall it looks quite a bit more refined than the original CS/LR17.

.... However we also got a picture just a few months ago showing what is likely a schematic of the new assault rifle, which when slightly reoriented shows the silhouette of a rifle whose overall configuration and broad features looks like it is consistent with CS/LR17 (both old and new) as well as the pictures of the competitor rifles that we saw originally.
It is also been stated that we will see the new service rifle make its official appearance in the National Day parade this year. Chances are, we will start to get pics of it released or leaked in the months leading up to the parade.





By78 translated a post a while ago regarding the details of the new rifle, seen here:
https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/pla-small-arms.t373/page-140#post-530123




It's also been suggested that the new assault rifle will use a new variant of the 5.8mm bullet including having a new more powerful powder.







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So, what do we know about the new service rifle?

1. It uses a conventional configuration
2. It will almost certainly use a new 5.8mm bullet
3. It will have certain modular features and likely come in different variants/lengths
4. It is likely to have a number of ergonomic features that are "new" for the PLA, including:
- folding+telescoping stock
- full length (or near full length) top rail
- new handguard system, possibly with negative space mounting systems
- related to the above, potentially with free floating barrel
- potentially ability to barrel change/calibre change
- possibly ambidextrous fire select


That's all we know about the new service rifle so far, now we wait.



I think it would be worthwhile for this thread to be stickied by a mod, considering it's likely to become a bit of a hot topic in coming months. In fact I'm surprised the PLA small arms thread isn't stickied as well.

Don't forget that the CS/LR17 showed had its own Grenade launcher module with a quick attach similar in some ways to the XM320 when it was mated to HK416 Or XM8. Clearly that element would likely be an accessory demand for the new rifle. That accessory might also be usable like the M320 as a stand alone.

Based on what we see with the CS/LR17 series and earlier prototypes. I feel that the PLA are taking a huge amount of inspiration from the XM8 concept. We see in the CS/LR17 variant with a short barrel carbine length, full length "Battle rifles" as they described them, DMR rifles and Automatic rifle variants.
The degree of modularity also follows that as well.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Based on what we see with the CS/LR17 series and earlier prototypes. I feel that the PLA are taking a huge amount of inspiration from the XM8 concept. We see in the CS/LR17 variant with a short barrel carbine length, full length "Battle rifles" as they described them, DMR rifles and Automatic rifle variants.
The degree of modularity also follows that as well.

Click to expand...

Care to elaborate wrt the underlined part?

I feel like CS/LR17 and the new service rifle seemingly takes more inspiration from more contemporary rifles like ACR, SCAR and even HK416 to an extent.

any video of this module rifle in range shooting ? It's been years since we saw those pictures.

MrCrazyBoyRavi said:

any video of this module rifle in range shooting ? It's been years since we saw those pictures.

Click to expand...

Of course no videos.

Considering the stage of PLA revelations for new weapons that this new rifle is at, we probably won't get any videos of the rifle shooting until well after it is officially revealed later this year.

Bltizo said:

Of course no videos.

Considering the stage of PLA revelations for new weapons that this new rifle is at, we probably won't get any videos of the rifle shooting until well after it is officially revealed later this year.

Click to expand...

any idea if this will be issued to all units or only special forces ?

MrCrazyBoyRavi said:

any idea if this will be issued to all units or only special forces ?

Click to expand...

Initially it will likely issued to higher priority units.

In time I imagine it will be produced to be the new service rifle for the entire PLA, barring unforeseen circumstances