our u.s forces just got some near-peer pressure from china in the form of their next generation
primary rifle called the qbz 191 it's the most lethal thing to come out of china in 2019
well almost...this change couldn't have anything to do with the potential invasion
of Taiwan could it ?? nah! once we dive into the qbz 191 we'll notice something really weird the
got similar augmented lasers and optics but don't jump to conclusions just yet because looks can be
deceiving china is changing more than just their primary rifle here they're adjusting their whole
military strategy they want to be more in line with what a wealthy burgeoning superpower should
look like they're flexing on the world stage with the qbz 191 so while the us is working hard to
replace the old ar series and change to a higher caliber we have the pla working hard to create
a better version of the ar and sticking to their old smaller caliber in this video we're going to
analyze what our near pier adversaries china is up to and we'll speculate a little bit about how this
might change their combat tactics in the event of an invasion of taiwan if you look at the way
that the next gen qbz 191 was first revealed to the whole world it tells us a lot about why they
made this switch now we first saw the firearms in the hands of their regular infantry in 2019
when their army marched straight down tiananmen square to celebrate the 70th anniversary of their
country you might remember tiananmen square from having no other events of historical importance
ever happening there it can't be understated how important it is that they chose to reveal this
new firearm at this historic milestone for their country it's not a coincidence not like someone
just turned around at their desk and was like oh finally i finished the qbz 191 oh it just so
happens to be the day of that big parade let's give the infantry this thing no we know that
they've been developing this weapon since at least 2015 because in 2017 that's when the first images
of this firearm were leaked through an article in the firearms block just like the last time china
revealed a new primary weapon that they wanted to showcase they wanted the whole world to see that
they turned a corner not just as a country but as a military i've talked about how in the past
the chinese army looked like they were stuck in like 2001 they didn't really have any night vision
mounts on a lot of their outdated helmets and they didn't really have much ballistic body armor on
even in their promotional videos now every helmet features a nods mount and what looks to be like
a similar night vision to the old us pbs14 the generation of night vision that i used in 2008
they all wear ballistic plates much of their gear looks like it's on par with modern us army
they'll probably reverse engineer the enhanced night vision soon enough don't worry
look at how this weapon now has picatinny rails on the top and bottom unlike the qb z95
in the modern age military rifles are required to have space on the rails for
multiple optics and night fighting capabilities china's old bullpups couldn't accommodate this
growing new need a youtuber by the name of cabbage did a very thorough analysis of all
of the leaks and open source information on the qbz 191 which i've linked to in the description
but according to cabbage the dmr version is called the qbu-191 and it could very well be a
free-floated barrel that is on this weapon system so what we're really seeing here is that the pla
is focused more on the quality of each individual soldier this next-gen rifle is a reflection of
the pla moving away from a conscription force model to a professional one one that can take
advantage of a more sophisticated firearm because they're investing more in the training of the
soldiers you know for approximately the past 20 years the pla has been using the bullpup qbz95
but with this new qbz 191 they're moving away from old pup to a traditional layout china has
always been very secretive about their small arms programs unlike the united states where they let
any random youtuber from long island fire their next generation prototypes unlike in the united
states where our military weapons programs are the result of a competition between many companies
in china their next-gen rifle was made by one norenko which is the major defense company the
major defense manufacturer in that country there are some pros and cons that come along with having
the government have full control of a weapons development on the plus side they have more
resources and more focus but on the downside that won't necessarily translate to a better weapon
system due to the corruption and bureaucracy that is inherent in state-run programs however
in the case of the qbz 191 it appears that they actually got what they wanted with this strategy
at first when i looked at this i thought its stock was foldable but when you look at a cutaway of the
weapon it seems to have a lot in common with the m16 including a recoil spring and a buffer tube
that goes into the back of the buttstock which prevents it from being a foldable stock cabbage
did a very thorough well-researched video on this topic and he mentioned how the pla also released a
new db 191 upgrade to their ammo but right now no one really knows how this affects the ballistics
if i had to guess I would say they're probably tweaking the propellant for higher muzzle velocity
and pressures now that the firearm can handle that from what we understand the muzzle velocity
for this weapon system is going to be around 3000 feet per second this new ammo type I think will
be focused on velocity to potentially defeat the us army's body armor I have to point out no one
drills like the PLA infantry when I had to do about face in the military fell on my face every
time on the plus side i never had to worry about being sent to a re-education camp this new weapon
now has an upper and lower receiver again it looks very similar to the AR series in terms of its
design there's some quality of life improvements here as well like an ambidextrous firing selector
making this weapon easier to fire as a righty or lefty they've also placed a fully automatic mode
right after safe so the fastest way to fire is to go full auto which is different than most firearms
all around in any military it's interesting choice which leads me to believe china's prioritizing the
tactic of getting in close and laying down a ton of fire they also made the decision to not include
a three round burst which i like because as you know I'm emphatically against the three round
burst i think it's a half measure it's a [ __ ] design choice made for people who never had to
fully commit to anything it's the kind of decision that's made by focus groups that's sitting around
making damn compromises no the chairman would never allow compromise we must have full auto or
nothing with the new design they were able to give it a faster rate of fire 750 rounds per minute
instead of the old 600 rounds per minute with the qbz 191 this new rifle this traditional firearm
we see not just a new rifle but we also see a whole new pla infantryman system in the past a
lot of military articles that analyze open source defense information they made a big deal about how
china is able to produce infantry very cheaply and very quickly for their average soldier versus the
cost of the u.s soldier which is very expensive i think china's making a major shift here with
their military strategy moving away from their approach of just pumping out quantity and leaning
more towards quality which makes sense as a country because they're more powerful and they're
adjusting their strategy accordingly i look at how all militaries evolve through the decades they
all follow this clear trajectory as they upgrade based on what they can afford it's iterative and
but here we're seeing a big leap in the iterations because up until recently it looked like they were
playing up until now i'm not suggesting that the pla is simply playing copycat with the usa
i think they're analyzing what works from afar and implementing new solutions that are even better i
know i mentioned in the last video about the qbz 95 saying that it was perfect for their strategy
because it was compact and it could fit into vehicles easily but the qbz 191 also has a variant
that's very compact as well their carbine version has a 10.5 inch barrel making that version shorter
than most m4s while the standard version is 14.5 inches something interesting to note was that i
couldn't find any purpose-built dmr there's no real equivalent to like the m14 in the pla small
arms library as far as i could see maybe someone has a more information than me on this but this
is just another footnote in support of my theory that the pla appears to be not as concerned with
long-range engagements before we dive deeper into the qbz 191 i wanted to say that in this video and
the last one about the plas qbz95 i poked fun at them and i got some people upset in the comment
section if you look through the military content that i've been making for the past two and a half
years you'll see that i often make fun of my own fellow us forces i'm critical of our own american
equipment all the time i also poke fun at myself because i know i'm just a guy on a green screen
living in a tiny apartment with bin walls no one really seems to mind when i joke about allied
nato military forces you know they recognize that my intention i'm telling you i'm coming
from a good place it's all in good fun but the second i talk about the ccp for some weird reason
everyone gets all sensitive as if they're being monitored by some large authoritarian government
the end of the day i hope the us finds a way to cooperate with the chinese that at the same time
doesn't make the u.s bend their notion of what freedom means because those are foundational to us
i understand making this video is probably going to give me a negative 5 000 social score over in
china the joke's on them because i already have a terrible credit score right here in my own
country back to the rifle when the qbz 95 was in development in the 1980s that was right before the
widespread understanding of how important optics scopes and attachments would be in the future
my own analysis is that china recently saw how valuable these attachments and scopes were during
the fighting in afghanistan and they wanted a weapon that could support these solutions in the
future remember afghanistan is right on china's border and it's important to them that there's
relative stability in that country there are some articles suggesting that it might be their turn
next to send forces to afghanistan what is it like some world superpower rite of passage to
occupy afghanistan we all take turns occupying the country trying to create stability there
it's undeniably a valuable geographic location seated right between china and pakistan
the british had their go of it before russia took their turn in the 1980s and then america took a
shot in the 2000s and now it looks like china is going to be doing their version of military
show and tell on the world stage by increasing their presence there this is just me speculating
china appears to be running two optics on the qbz 191 there's the q mark 192 and the other is the q
mark 171 this is a three times magnified scope which is one less magnification than the four
times acog that the us runs it also doesn't appear to have a battery compartment which would let
soldiers use these illuminated reticles without the power of the sun the pla has become more brash
and more confident in the last two years they've been militarizing islands that are disputed in
the south china sea while the initial invasion of taiwan would probably be a success for them
they're more worried about holding on to their gains from a well-organized u.s reaction in order
for them to hold taiwan they need weapons that support knight fighting capabilities
they need a weapon like the qbz-191 their old rifle had problems running scopes because of
its high height over bore engagements in taiwan would likely be less than 300 meters a lot of the
geography of taiwan is unusual there's a lot of mountains in the western region and in the
eastern part there's a lot of open sloping planes those mountainous areas would cause choke points
so i learned there's actually a lot that's going into the design of this magazine
they have to consider the weight of the bullet they have to consider the velocity of the bolt in
order to determine how the magazine spring should be loaded the operator can now see when they go
below five bullets which is very useful so i want to know what are your thoughts on the qbz 191 is
china just copying the m16 platform have are they improving on it do you like the direction that
this weapon is going in do you agree or disagree with some of the points i made i'm looking forward
to talking with you all in the comment section about this i'm your host chris cappy follow me
on instagram cappy army and be sure to check out one of our other videos while you're here