The QBZ-03 (Mandarin: Qīngwuqi Bùqiāng Zìdòng—"light rifle automatic") assault rifle, also known as the Type 03, is a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

gas operated Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the cartridge being fired is used to power a mechanism to dispose of the spent ...

selective-fire Selective fire is the capability of a weapon to be adjusted to fire in semi-automatic, fully automatic, and/or burst mode. The modes are chosen by means of a selector switch, which varies depending on the weapon's design. Some selective-fire we ...

assault rifle designed and developed for the 5.8×42mm DBP87 round. Unlike the

bullpup A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the Chamber (firearms), breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, ...

QBZ-95 The Type 95 automatic rifle () or QBZ-95 is a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured by Norinco, and issued since 1995 as the service rifle for the People's Liberation Army, People's Armed Police and various paramilitary law enforcemen ...

, the QBZ-03 is a weapon of conventional design. The weapon is designed to be easily used by soldiers already familiar with previously issued assault rifles and machine guns.

Design

The QBZ-03 has a two-piece receiver largely made up of forged aluminum alloy with the stock, pistol grip, and handguards being made of a polymer compound. Its design appears to be based on the cancelled Type 87 assault rifle, chambered in 5.8mm. The rifle was made in conjunction with the QBZ-95 as an alternative primary weapon. The gas block has a two position regulator, one for firing standard ammunition, the other to allow the use of rifle grenades. The sights are of a hooded front sight with a flip up rear

diopter sight The diopter is an aperture sight component used to assist the aiming of devices, mainly firearms, airguns, and crossbows. It is found in particular as a rear sight element on rifles. To obtain a usable sighting line the diopter has to have a com ...

similar to the American

M16 rifle The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...

. A scope rail is available to allow the use of various optics. The weapon has a faster rate of fire compare to QBZ-95. Operating system is similar to

Type 81 assault rifle The Type 81 (; literally; "Type 81 Automatic Rifle") is a Chinese-designed second-generation, selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle based on Kalashnikov and SKS actions adopted by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and has be ...

featuring rotating bolt locking and short-stroke gas piston. An export variant of the QBZ-03 also exists, first introduced in 2005 by the joint CJAIE (China Jing-An Import-Export) and Jiang-She Group Companies. The export version is chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and feeds by STANAG magazines. The cyclic rate on the issued model is semi-automatic or fully automatic only, while the export model has an integrated three round burst mode. The type's most notable public display was by the PLA Airforce Airborne Troops during the October 1st 2009 60th Anniversary Parade. The assault rifle was also featured in the 2015 Victory Day Parade.

Upgrades

Picatinny rail

A new tactical variant of the weapon was spotted at a counter-terrorism exhibition; the tactical variant is equipped with quad-rail hand guard and is used by police and border guards.

QTS-11 OICW

In February 2011, photos began to appear of a Chinese weapon called the QTS-11. The QTS-11 combines the Type 03 assault rifle with a 20 mm

airburst An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...

grenade launcher. This makes China the third country to develop an airburst infantry weapon, after the American

XM29 The XM29 OICW (''Objective Individual Combat Weapon'') was a series of prototypes of a new type of assault rifle that fired 20 mm HE airbursting projectiles. The prototypes were developed as part of the Objective Individual Combat Weapon p ...

Objective Individual Combat Weapon The Objective Individual Combat Weapon or OICW was the next-generation service rifle competition that was under development as part of the United States Army OICW program; the program was eventually discontinued without bringing the weapon out of ...

and

XM25 CDTE The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement (CDTE) System, also known as the Punisher and Individual Semiautomatic Air Burst System was an airburst grenade launcher with programmable ammunition derived from the XM29 OICW. It was fielded to sol ...

, and the South Korean K11 DAW.

Variants

*QBZ-03: Base model. *QBZ-03 Upgrade: Upgraded tactical variant, first unveiled at a 2014 anti-terrorism exhibition, with upgrades including a quad-rail

handguard A barrel shroud is an external covering that envelops (either partially or full-length) the barrel of a firearm, to prevent unwanted direct contact with the barrel (e.g. accidental collision with surrounding objects, or the user accidentally tou ...

. *T03: Export variant chambering 5.56x45 mm NATO and takes STANAG magazines. **T03A: Improved variant. *EM3513: Semi-automatic export variant, chambering 5.56 mm. **EM3513A: Improved variant, with rails and new stock.

Users

* * Jones, Richard D. ''Jane's Infantry Weapons 2009/2010''. Jane's Information Group; 35th edition (27 January 2009). .

Non-state actors

United Wa State Army The United Wa State Army (; my, ဝပြည် သွေးစည်းညီညွတ်ရေး တပ်မတော်, ), abbreviated as the UWSA or the UWS Army, is the military wing of the United Wa State Party (UWSP), the ''de facto' ...

References

External links

* {{Modern Chinese Infantry Weapons 5.56 mm assault rifles 5.8 mm firearms Assault rifles of the People's Republic of China Norinco Short stroke piston firearms Weapons and ammunition introduced in 2003