Does anyone know what would be the advantages of the qbz-97b? The only thing I can think of is that procuring them means getting an SMG with more flexible range and can penetrate armor.
PLA Small arms
- Thread starter Vanguard1688
- Start date
maybe good choice for police I guess.
97B is 5.56 chambered carbine made for export market, if you mean 95B then thats just the carbine variant. 95B was pretty popular among PLAN sailors but I guess it has probably been phased out.
I meant 97B. Venezuela bought some of these a couple of years ago, but I don't know why they did it except they wanted a compact assault rifle and there wasn't a lot good available options.
I'm no expert for Venezuela's military but its probably because:
1. Venezuela doesn't have a well developed enough firearms industry to manufacture certain weapons in mass
2. Limited procurement for special units like SF or whatnot or part of testing for some bid?
3. Venezuela can only trade military equipment with a limited amount of partners because of U.S. led trade embargo
4. With the above, QBZ-97B is realistically the most serviceable weapon as there aren't really any 7.62x39 Carbines that exist (knowing that the AK-103 is their service rifle), and 5.56 reserves are probably plentiful
Mainly used by marines and special forces.
I think we weren't buying stuff from Russia anymore and China filled the void. We also bought cf05 and cs/ls07 as SMG, as a examples.
The only point it confuses me is why went through that gun and not a Chinese m4a1 clone like the Norinco-CQ.
This was like in 2021, but even today the qbz-191 export versions probably cost twice at least.
5.56 would be convenient and there are not many providers, but why was the tiny qbz choosen and not any other orthodox alternative is what intrigues me.