The QCW-05 (, also referred to as the Type 05 Suppressed Submachine Gun) is a suppressed

bullpup A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the 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, more compact, conce ...

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...

, manufactured and developed by the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the China, People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five Military branch, service branches: the People's ...

(PLA) 208 Research Institute and Jianshe Industries (Group) Corporation of

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Co ...

under the

China South Industries Group The China Ordnance Equipment Group Corporation (), also known as China South Industries Group Corporation (CSGC, ), is a Chinese state-owned manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, firearms, vehicle components, and photonics, optical-electronic ...

for the

People's Liberation Army Ground Force The People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF; ) is the land-based service branch of the People's Liberation Army and the largest and oldest branch of the entire Chinese armed forces. The PLAGF can trace its lineage from 1927 as the Chine ...

, the People's Liberation Army Special Operations Forces and the

People's Armed Police ) , abbreviation = PAP ("People's Armed Police") CAPF ("Chinese Armed Police Force"), formerly abbreviated''Wujing'' ( zh , s = 武警 , p = Wǔjǐng , l = Armed Police , labels = no ), or WJ as on vehicle license plates , patch ...

. This weapon is designed for the 5.8×21mm DCV05 sub-sonic round that is also used by the

QSW-06 The QSW-06 () (officially translated in pinyin as ''Wēishēng'' ''Shǒu Qiāng'', literally 'Minimal noise handgun') (also sometimes referred to as the Type 06) is a suppressed semi-automatic pistol in limited use with the People's Liberation A ...

Silenced

Pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, a ...

Development

In October 2001 the Jianshe Industries (Group) Corporation (owned by the

) won a bid to produce the PLA's next generation of submachine gun to replace the Type 79 and the Type 85 silenced submachine guns, beating out other competitors such as the Changfeng CF-05 due to its ease of construction and operation. At the 2005 International Police Equipment Expo in Beijing, Jianshe revealed their final product, a

, blowback, open bolt submachine gun that externally resembled the

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 enforce ...

assault rifle which was then given the designation QCW-05. At the 2006 MILIPOL Expo, a smaller police and export version of the QCW-05 called the 'Jianshe JS 9mm', a silenced submachine gun, was revealed to the public. The 'JS 9mm' is chambered for the popular

9×19mm Parabellum The 9×19mm Parabellum (also known as 9mm Parabellum or 9mm Luger or simply 9mm) is a rimless, tapered firearms cartridge. Originally designed by Austrian firearm designer Georg Luger in 1901, it is widely considered the most popular handgun ...

caliber. The QCW-05 is intended to be PLA's frontline personal defense weapon for personnel in non-combat roles such as vehicle crews and aircrews who would normally be confined to quarters where a full assault rifle would be unwieldy and by specialized operation units such as the People's Liberation Army Special Operations Forces and People's Armed Police.

Design details

The QCW-05 is a blowback,

open bolt A firearm is said to fire from an open bolt if, when ready to fire, the bolt and working parts are held to the rear of the receiver, with no round in the chamber. When the trigger is actuated, the bolt travels forward, feeds a cartridge from t ...

bullpup silenced submachine gun that is capable of either full automatic or semi-automatic fire. The QCW-05s light weight can be attributed to its small aluminum receiver and polymer construction which also lends itself well towards quicker mass-production. It has a low rate of fire in order to maintain controllability, a feature stressed from the beginning by the PLA for a weapon as light as a submachine gun. There is a thumb fire mode selector on the left side of the weapon directly above the grip with a semi-automatic position (1), full automatic (2), and

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly di ...

(0) and an ejection port on the right side of the weapon. A removable metal screw-on cylindrical suppressor is attached to the barrel of the gun. The carrying handle, which is located above the compact aluminum receiver, houses the charging handle. The use of the 5.8×21mm DV05 subsonic round reduced the QCW-05's muzzle velocity to approximately 150 m/s and gives the submachine gun an effective range of 50 meters which is considered adequate for a silenced weapon. Ammunition is fed from a detachable curved fifty round, four column, double stacked box (another initial requirement of the PLA) at the rear of the submachine gun. As the QCW-05 is designed for general military use rather than being used only in a specialized niche role, a suppressor can be a hindrance when a situation calls for an emphasis on the performance or size of the weapon rather than its noise reduction capabilities, which is why the suppressor is removable, or in the case of the QCQ-05 variant, completely absent. Once the suppressor is removed, the QCW-05 is essentially the same as the QCQ-05 and can fire the DAP92 round as well. The QCW-05 shares the common trait of other bullpup weapons of being suboptimal to fire from the left shoulder given the placement of the ejection port and its proximity to the operator's face when firing.

Variants

There are two variants of the QCW-05; the JS 9mm and the QCQ-05.

JS 9mm

A slightly smaller, somewhat externally different version of the QCW-05 designed for use by police and for export overseas. The JS 9mm is chambered for the

cartridge, and it also uses the same 30 round

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

used by the popular

Heckler & Koch MP5 The Heckler & Koch MP5 (german: Maschinenpistole 5) is a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. There are over 100 variants and clones of the MP5, ...

submachine gun. Another noticeable difference is that JS 9mm doesn't have a carrying handle, instead a

picatinny rail The Picatinny rail ( or ), or Pic rail for short, also known as a MIL-STD-1913 rail, 1913 rail or STANAG 2324 rail (cancelled), is a military standard rail interface system that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It was ...

could be mounted on the top.

QCQ-05

The QCQ-05 () (officially translated in pinyin as ''Qiāng Chōngfēng Qīngxíng'', literally 'Gun, Assault, Light') is a variant of the QCW-05 without the suppressor and is capable of using either the 5.8×21mm DCV05 subsonic pistol cartridge or the 5.8×21mm DAP92 pistol cartridge which is also used by the

QSZ-92 The QSZ-92 () is a semi-automatic pistol designed by Norinco. History The development of the QSZ-92 pistol began circa 1994 and it is now being adopted by the People's Liberation Army's forces. The export variants (9×19 mm versions) include the ...

pistol. While the QCQ-05 does not come with a suppressor, the QCW-05 suppressor can still be affixed and removed from the QCQ-05.

References

External links

Type 05 5.8mm / JS 9mm submachine gun - Modern Firearms
{{Personal defense weapons 5.8 mm firearms Bullpup firearms Personal defense weapons Weapons and ammunition introduced in 2005 Submachine guns of the People's Republic of China