Chinese Optical Gunsights

With the Advent of the QBZ95 China seems too be driving hard too bring it's self too the same level of Quality of infantry gear. now I know China Has both reflex and magnified gunfights, Yet I have found very very little on the makers and there design evolution. Where did they come from did the guys at Norinco just copy the gunsights on Russian weapons ( something I doubt) or was there more involved?

TerraN_EmpirE said:

With the Advent of the QBZ95 China seems too be driving hard too bring it's self too the same level of Quality of infantry gear. now I know China Has both reflex and magnified gunfights, Yet I have found very very little on the makers and there design evolution. Where did they come from did the guys at Norinco just copy the gunsights on Russian weapons ( something I doubt) or was there more involved?

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So far, it only seems that attention on optics are of very recent thing, at least by their establishment standpoint, you'd more likely see imported optics on police SWAT's guns, mounted on MIL-STD-1913 rail attachment kits manufactured by the 3rd party.

As we all know, in China development of military gears have to be driven by the PLA, even the PAP have to go through that channel, or shop for imported stuff as police SWAT gear. Worse still, the most expedient path of pushing infantry-level optics is the requirement of sub-MOA sniper rifle, but for China to pay attention to modern military sniping only began less than 10 years ago, and that was after their PAP team get hopelessly pwned at their first entry of international competition! Overall, PAP and even PLA as a whole haven't totally grasp the need of advanced optics to augment their infantry weapons.

Though in the due course of their attempt to manufacture better weapons on all levels - from infantry to vehicle mounted - they'll inevitably need to upgrade their optics, but in reality very little is known about China's capabilities in this sector, and if trade shows are of any indication, this sector has yet to receive enough investment or at best, yet to manufacture optics that's at par with the West's.

yet we have seen images of a magnified gun sight on Qbz95. You Yourself have posted images of a Qbz95G at a meet and greet kitted including such a scope.
Does it have a designation? what kind of reticle does it have? Is it battery or solar or perhaps using a luminous material like Tritium illumination?

MwRYum said:

So far, it only seems that attention on optics are of very recent thing, at least by their establishment standpoint, you'd more likely see imported optics on police SWAT's guns, mounted on MIL-STD-1913 rail attachment kits manufactured by the 3rd party.

As we all know, in China development of military gears have to be driven by the PLA, even the PAP have to go through that channel, or shop for imported stuff as police SWAT gear. Worse still, the most expedient path of pushing infantry-level optics is the requirement of sub-MOA sniper rifle, but for China to pay attention to modern military sniping only began less than 10 years ago, and that was after their PAP team get hopelessly pwned at their first entry of international competition! Overall, PAP and even PLA as a whole haven't totally grasp the need of advanced optics to augment their infantry weapons.

Though in the due course of their attempt to manufacture better weapons on all levels - from infantry to vehicle mounted - they'll inevitably need to upgrade their optics, but in reality very little is known about China's capabilities in this sector, and if trade shows are of any indication, this sector has yet to receive enough investment or at best, yet to manufacture optics that's at par with the West's.

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The PLA has different priorities to western militaries and different budgets.

For them, the top priority is reliability, after that it is affordability. China has a vast military and it would be silly to equip a million man force to the same level as a military a quarter or less of that size. Fancy optics would likely fail both the reliability and affordability tests.

For the PLA, it is better that every soldier gets a Type 95 rather than have a few hundred thousand get blinged up Type 95s while everyone else still has to make do with Type 81s.

In addition, I think a lot of the PLA higher ups are quite traditional in that they believe that you don't need fancy targeting aids if you put in the graft and work hard on your marksmanship, and it is hard to fault them on that when you consider just how phonemically well the PLA sniper team did once they were given a proper chance to show the world what they got (I do not consider the results of the first time they appeared to be any way representative of their skill and training since they were made to use unfamiliar guns on the day of the competition, do that to any sniper and he would struggle. I really do wonder just how they would have done if they were allowed to use their Type 88s in that competition.)

Something else to consider is that China is at peace, has been for decades and looks set to continue to be at peace for the foreseeable future.

Even the US and especially the poor British militaries were struggling to piece together enough operational gear for all their troopers when they first went into Iraq and Afghanistan.

The current high standard of infantry gear in the US and many allied militaries is as much to do with them being operationally deployed in combat missions as it is to do with optics being the next best thing. Hell, even within the US military, quite often the fancy optics and other cool gear you see in pictures were bought by the soldiers themselves out of their own pocket.

Not always there Plawolf Many individual units in the US armed forces maintained special budgets for such and there was both the RFI program as well as reimbursement programs. the Marines standard issued The ACog in later Years, And the Royal armed forces standard issued the SUSAT early and used an earlyer version on there FAL L1A1.
Perhaps A little expantion away from the Qbz is in order.
Kahles Scopes makes optics for the QBU88

And i never limited it too the PLA did I? I said china And china is a lot bigger then the PLA