Looking at the new rifle, it looks like the barrel length should be about 10 inches and 14 inches for the carbine and the infantry/assault rifle variants, which would correspond reasonably well with the M4 and CQBR in the US and with similar assault rifles and short variants in other nations.
I wonder if it might have been worth going to a 16 inch barrel as the standard assault rifle variant instead, but it seems like they might be going with the ~14 inch barrel instead. That said it's early days and as Josh kindly pointed out, so far the parade has only shown the short version so far.
historically the first and second widespread Practical Assault rifles the STG44 and AK47 used 16.3-16.5 inch barrels.
The AR15 when it emerged started the 20
Inch barrel. But it also started the 14.5 inch barrel length with the CAR15 Commando. Although it’s listed with a 10.5 inch barrel in practice that was rather loud and flashy so they added a sound moderator break that was 4 inches long.
Later 5.56x45mm rifles would try barrel lengths from 20-12.5 inches to as short as 7 inches. But this tends to cause issues of , reliability, heat, sound and muzzle flash.
The US would trial a 16 inch barreled carbine of the M16A2 but didn’t go with it instead starting the M4. The length of barrel chosen as it was the shortest length they could mount a bayonet on, but it also allowed better reliability and flash control. That said a 11.5 inch barreled M4A1 has been adopted but is more or less treated as a specialist weapon. Germany would adopt the G36 around the same time as the QBZ95. G36 also has a 18.9 inch barrel however they would also issue the G36K with a 12.5 inch barrel. the Israelis who adopted the M16 almost by accident of history would
Over the decades rebuild M16s given them to 12.5 inch. They would later carry this over to the X95.
In Soviet Union of Socialist Republics barrel lengths trialed them...
They trailed DMR Aks with longer barrel lengths. they didn’t adopt it the Iraqis would though. Besides the Soviet SKS is already a 20 inch semiauto 7.62x39mm DMR rifle.
Although they would adopt the RPK which is very similar as a LMG they wouldn’t as a DMR deciding that the Dragonov with a higher caliber round was superior.
After adopting the AK74 they also adopted a short barreled carbine the AKS74U. It has a 9” barrel but guess what problems it had?
Heat, reliability, excessive muzzle flash and sound.
So around the mid 1990’s early 2000s the Russians adopted the AK74M as part of that they adopted the AK105 with a 12.4 inch barrel.
the QBZ95 as we know has the long barrel but the QBZ95B has had a 14.5” barrel from day one. So we know they have been looking at a length that short before.
Using
@josh Luo’s Bullets as a Ruler I think now it’s a 14.5 inch barrel for the infantry rifle and a 12.5 inch for the compact carbine.
This is as the length of a 5.8x42mm round is 2.3 inches figure another round between the chamber and the muzzle break in length and we get 14.5 for the infantry version and 12.5 for the compact.
A picture where I try to scale the long and short barrels as closely together as I can.
Funnily enough the pictures I posted on twitter with the pic viewer seems to somehow manage to scale them automatically very closely, which is why you see the arrows there
View attachment 54374
Shorter lengths in this class has produced issues. That may only be 2 inches shorter but that’s about the norm when compared to other rifles. The 16.5 inch barrel vs 14.5 inch in terms of ballistics depends on the round but is really marginal in the case of intermediate caliber rounds. An 18 inch would fit for longer lengths but let’s take a moment and look at three factors. One where they have their field experience and having studied the west in Iraq and Afghanistan. Where although M4 as been felt to come up short it’s convenient size and length have even meant that US Socom guys have ditched SCAR for M4A1.
The peacekeeper missions and infantry fighting we have seen in the last decade push more and more mechanized infantry that pushes for shorter barrel length.
Next the two precedents with the QBZ95B model and the CS/LR17. When we look at the later we see that 14.5-16.3 inch range as the “Battle rifle”. Although this is clearly not the CS/LR17, some of the same ideas should have carried over. I expect as this matures we will see members of this family built primarily around these two with the 14.5 as the infantry standard issue and 12.5 for vehicle crews perhaps infantry squad leaders. With the longer as a Squad DMR? Its possible that they are still experimenting with a longer barreled version. That leaves us to the two question marks.
- LMG a QBB191 or a proper LMG?
- QBZ191C? A very compact PDW version for special needs?
