NORINCO Type 79

History

For decades, the Chinese maintained a close working relationship with the Soviet Union. The benefits of this relationship include access to Soviet military equipment that predates China's own local production by many years.

Eventually licensed local production, while other emerging designs became illegal copies of originals found elsewhere in the world. Over time, an indigenous initiative emerged that enabled the Chinese military to begin designing, developing, and mass-producing indigenous weapons that were fully compliant with Chinese specifications. However, the timing was almost perfect for the Chinese, as Soviet-Chinese relations collapsed for political and ideological reasons in the 1950s - leading to the Sino-Soviet split in 1960 - and did not recover until the 1990s.

During this period, however, the Chinese continued to use their acquired knowledge and develop their own weapons, such as the Type 79 submachine gun.

The Type 79 was developed in the 1970s, and the pre-production model finally appeared in 1981. Serial production followed in 1983. The weapon became a highly traditional submachine gun design with one major exception - it was designed around gas (rotating bolt) operation, whereas many other submachine guns are usually designed around recoil operation. This leads to similarities with other existing Chinese assault and service rifles, which are of course of Soviet origin - including many Kalashnikov types. Additionally, the system does not rely on heavy inner workings, making the weapon lighter and overall compact.

Over time, the weapon became the standard for the Chinese military, internal security and special forces. In addition, the Type 79 has traditionally been equipped with a large rectangular receiver, folding hinged wire rest and an integrated pistol grip.

The structure is steel stamping and the weapon is loaded with Soviet 7.62x25mm Tokarev pistol cartridges for good personnel interception. A safety and fire mode selector was placed on the right side of the receiver, within the scope of the trigger function (obviously influenced by the design and layout of the Kalashnikov). A straight, detachable 20-round magazine is mounted forward of the pistol grip and trigger assembly in the usual manner.

The charging handle is mounted on the right side of the receiver, and the iron sight is mounted on the top of the receiver and on the muzzle. The cylinder is mounted above the barrel in the traditional Kalashnikov style.

Basically, the Type 79 is a no-frills submachine gun that reportedly performs well in a fairly busy market. A rate of fire of 500 rounds per minute is acceptable and the control is considered good for this type of weapon. The effective range is up to 200 meters, although the Type 79 is really only used for short to medium missions. The gun is mass-produced - more than 290,000 examples are believed to have been made since its inception in 1979, and is still in use today (2012) - and its gas-powered bolt works just as well.

The Type 79 was finally simplified with the introduction of the Type 85 submachine gun in 1985. This series returns to the widely accepted recoil operating system and features a new cylindrical receiver with a folding line stock and a curved 30-round detachable magazine.

Specification

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Changes