The Type 91 Grenade Launcher is a Chinese

grenade launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially designed, large caliber projectile, often with an explosive, Smoke screen, smoke, or tear gas, gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary gre ...

used to launch 35mm non-lethal grenades. It may come in shoulder-launched, rifle-attached, and vehicle-mounted variants. The rifle mounted version has a similar loading mechanism to the American made M203.

Design and development

The shoulder-fired launcher is a single-shot, manual-fed, and

breech-loading A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ...

weapon. It is lightweight, compact, breech-loading, and single-shot. It consists of a hand guard,

sight Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...

, aluminum receiver assembly, barrel stop, and firing mechanism. The weapon could be used by any front-line assault troops in need of a long range explosive. This weapon would be carried as a secondary weapon for a breacher, the member of a team who carries breach tool during an assault. The rifle-attached variant could be mounted on the underside of either a Type 56, Type 81, or

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 law enforcement in China, la ...

Grenade types

;DFB-91: Stun grenade. ;DFT-91: Sting grenade. ;DFR-91: Paintball grenade. ;DFC-91: Tear gas. ;DFG-91: Flashbang.

Variants

;QLL-91: shoulder-fired variant ;QLG-91: rifle-attached variant for Type 56 assault rifle. ;QLG-91A: rifle-attached variant for Type 81 assault rifle. ;QLG-91B: rifle-attached variant for

Vehicle-Mounted

This version of the Type 91 can be mounted on the WZ-551 internal security

armored vehicle Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighti ...

. It can fire in automatic and semi-automatic modes. The launcher is air-cooled, recoil operated, disintegrating metallic link-belt fed non lethal weapon.

Users

*: Used by the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

. *

References

External links

''Type 91''
at SinoDefence {{Modern Chinese Infantry Weapons Weapons of the People's Republic of China Grenade launchers of the People's Republic of China Grenade launchers Riot guns Teargas grenade guns Riot control weapons