Compared with everyone's previous impression of heavy machine guns, they are bulky and inconvenient to carry. Not long ago, the latest domestic heavy machine gun QJZ 17 1 made a stunning appearance, setting a new record for the weight of heavy machine guns and becoming the lightest machine gun in the world. So how advanced is this machine gun? How did you do it so well?

Speaking of heavy machine guns of the People's Liberation Army, I am afraid that the type 89 heavy machine guns are the most familiar to everyone. This heavy machine gun designed and manufactured for the Soviet NSV machine gun weighs only 26.3 kilograms, which is already the lightest heavy machine gun in the world. However, on the basis of Type 89, the weight of QJZ 17 1 heavy machine gun was further reduced by 9.5 kg, leaving only 16.8 kg, which was lower than the standard of 20 kg for individual soldiers of our army.

However, the large caliber of 12.7 mm is retained without affecting the performance of the new gun. On the contrary, it has obviously improved the accuracy, information content and life span compared with the original PLA machine gun.

So, what black technology does QJZ 17 1 use, which not only reduces the weight but also improves the combat effectiveness? This is related to the extensive use of new materials and technologies in new machine guns.

The first is titanium alloy. The gun frame, stock, shell and floating base of this new mountain heavy machine gun are all forged with titanium alloy. This can strengthen the overall strength of the gun on the premise of reducing the weight of the gun.

In addition to a large number of titanium alloys, many parts of this gun also use advanced high-strength carbon fiber materials. The tripod part of the new machine gun made of this material weighs only about 6 kilograms. You know, in the past machine guns, tripods have always occupied the bulk of the total weight of the whole gun. Among the Type 89 heavy machine guns with a total weight of 26.3 kg, the tripod has 9.5 kg. The tripod of the PLA Type 54 heavy machine gun weighs 55 kilograms. In contrast, it is enough to see that the weight reduction of QJZ 17 1 heavy machine gun on tripod has been considerable.

The ammunition supply system of the machine gun has also reduced the weight. The magazine and chain of the new machine gun abandoned the original metal forging and adopted high-strength engineering plastics, which reduced the weight while ensuring the ammunition supply capacity.

It is precisely because of these latest technologies that the weight of QJZ 17 1 new machine guns is far lower than other heavy machine guns equipped by the state. So with such a light weight, can the combat effectiveness of the whole gun be guaranteed?

The caliber of heavy machine guns is often relatively large, which will produce relatively large recoil in the state of continuous shooting. If it is not well controlled, this recoil will affect the firing accuracy of the machine gun. Therefore, in general, heavy machine guns are heavier, which can reduce the vibration of the gun body during continuous shooting, thus achieving higher accuracy.

If the weight is too light, it may adversely affect the accuracy of the machine gun. During the development of Type 89 machine gun, due to the excessive pursuit of lightweight, 12.7mm ammunition was replaced by steel back armor with general shooting accuracy, resulting in poor shooting accuracy of Type 89 machine gun. It is obviously different from the world's top machine guns.

But the lighter QJZ 17 1 not only won't have this problem, but also the shooting accuracy has reached the world leading level. How did it do it?

This is about the innovation in the design of new guns. Traditional heavy machine guns mostly rely on weight to improve shooting stability, but this new type of gun is different. Its main body adopts floating structure, and all parts are floating. This can effectively reduce the influence of recoil without load. Moreover, the design of the elastic butt allows the gun to deform elastically every time it is fired, which further offsets the influence of recoil in the process of continuous firing. This ensures its excellent shooting accuracy and stability under small weight.

In the test, at the distance of 1000 meters, the bullets of QJZ 17 1 machine gun are scattered less than 2.2 meters in continuous shooting, which can ensure that the target the size of a pickup truck can be accurately hit at this distance. You know, the accuracy requirements of the U.S. M 107 sniper rifle are just that.

In addition, this new machine gun can be switched back and forth between light machine guns and heavy machine guns. This gun can be used as a light machine gun when only a single bipod at the front of the gun body is used. If you put on a tripod, it will immediately become a heavy machine gun. In other words, it can guarantee to participate in the battle in the best condition in different situations.

As the successor of Type 89 machine gun, the informationization level of the new machine gun has also ushered in a qualitative leap. At present, the most advanced white light sight and infrared sight made in China have been equipped, which further improves the accuracy and range.

Moreover, due to the application of new high-strength wear-resistant and heat-resistant materials and the new breakthrough of barrel precision forging in China, the barrel life of the new machine gun has been greatly improved compared with the past, reaching nearly twice as long as that of Type 89.

So, why is the PLA obsessed with light and heavy machine guns? What's the point of doing this?

Since the founding of our army, there has been a high demand for the mobility of the troops. In those days, without mechanized equipment for transporting soldiers, we all relied on soldiers' feet for long-distance maneuvers. For highly mobile infantry, reducing the weight of heavy machine guns will undoubtedly have a very obvious effect.

At the beginning, the Type 54 heavy machine gun we used was more than 50 kilograms on a tripod, and the weight of the whole gun was as high as nearly 90 kilograms. Our soldiers had to carry it with them for quick maneuvers. Even though the Type 77 heavy machine gun was produced with a weight reduction of 40 kg on the basis of Type 54, the weight of the gun body still limited the shuttle speed of soldiers in the dense forest when fighting against Vietnam.

So the People's Liberation Army began to pay more and more attention to the lightweight of heavy machine guns, and thus the world's lightest QJZ 17 1 mountain heavy machine guns were born.

In this way, the significance of QJZ 17 1 mountain heavy machine guns to the PLA is obvious. As a mountain machine gun, its light weight can make the troops have strong maneuverability in mountain operations, and it can give soldiers more space to carry ammunition, food and other materials under the condition of ensuring firepower, which plays a very significant role in maintaining combat effectiveness.

Moreover, in the case that it is difficult to spread heavy equipment in mountain operations, soldiers can easily lift such heavy machine guns and run with fierce firepower, and can quickly reach the designated position in a short time to seize the favorable shooting position.

In addition, a smaller quantity also means a larger quantity of equipment and a stronger fire-fighting ability. In other words, if there are some border conflicts, no matter what kind of troops, they will have no resistance in the face of the PLA's powerful mountain combat firepower.

Generally speaking, with the PLA's comprehensive mechanization and rapid development towards informationization, such a 12.7mm heavy machine gun will certainly promote the improvement of the PLA's individual combat effectiveness.