Domestic 8.6 mm sniper rifle appeared at Zhuhai Air Show.

Domestic 8.6 mm sniper rifle appeared at Zhuhai Air Show.

According to the knowledge of weapons, the relevant units in China unveiled the domestic 8.6mm high-precision sniper rifle at the 20 18 Zhuhai Air Show, which means that the domestic light weapons are returning to the "medium caliber".

The caliber of 8.6 mm means that this gun fired a foreign popular .338 Ma Genan bullet. This kind of bullet is considered as the most ideal sniper rifle bullet, and its combat capability obviously exceeds the popular 7.62 mm caliber (.308), so it is likely to catch up with others.

After the 1960s, small-caliber light weapons set off a craze. At that time, it was generally believed that small caliber would eliminate medium caliber. However, it was soon found that the long-range killing ability of small caliber weapons was insufficient, and the battlefield environment such as long-range sniper, mountain and desert was particularly serious in the task that needed long-range shooting. Finally, we reserved 7.62mm caliber for sniper rifles and general machine guns. After the 1980s, with the development of protective equipment, it is difficult for even 7.62mm caliber bullets to penetrate high-level protective equipment at a long distance, which requires more powerful bullets. After testing and comparison, the 8.6 mm Ma Genan bullet appeared, which can provide the best cross-sectional density, ballistic coefficient and muzzle kinetic energy, and reach the best balance point in terms of power and accuracy. Therefore, the sniper rifle is the first to transition to 8.6mm caliber in the new century.

Overseas data show that the power of the 8.6 mm Ma Genan bullet is far greater than that of the existing 7.62 mm bullet, and the terminal kinetic energy is six times that of the latter. It can penetrate five layers of military body armor at 1 0,000m, which can provide snipers with a shooting distance of about 1 200m. This index can completely suppress the existing 7.62 mm sniper rifle and general machine gun. According to the actual combat experience of the United States and Britain, the 8.6 mm Kernin bullet still has great lethality even if its range exceeds 2,000 meters. American snipers have revealed that they used Ma Genan bullets to destroy the target at 2 100 meters, while British snipers further increased the shooting distance to 2,700 meters! At present, many countries such as the United States and Britain have developed and installed 8.6 mm sniper rifles, such as TAC-338 in the United States, AWM in the United Kingdom, and 8.6 mm general machine guns are also under development.

The domestic sniper rifle was once influenced by the small caliber of light weapons, and a 5.8 mm small caliber sniper rifle was developed. The effect can only be said to be unsatisfactory. The army has been calling for a "return to medium caliber". According to the practical experience at home and abroad, the relevant units in China have developed a 7.62 mm sniper rifle in the new century. Considering that the domestic 7.62mm bullet is out of date, and for the common ammunition in foreign competitions, the domestic 7.62mm sniper rifle chooses the NATO standard 7.62mm bullet instead of the domestic 7.62mm bullet, which means that our army has decided to eliminate the existing 7.62mm series ammunition, thus creating favorable conditions for the new generation of domestic light weapons to choose the 8.6mm caliber.

In order to improve shooting accuracy and reduce recoil, the domestic 8.6 mm sniper rifle adopts floating barrel. This design mainly considers that the 8.6 mm bullet is powerful, but the recoil is not small. Therefore, the floating barrel is adopted to reduce the influence of recoil on the shooter and improve the shooting accuracy of the sniper rifle. In addition, there is a commonly used picatinny rail on the barrel, which is not in direct contact with the barrel, but installed on the M-LOK to keep the barrel floating. It also shows that domestic firearms have begun to pay attention to the versatility of accessories.

The domestic Type 88 sniper rifle is gradually withdrawing from the sniper line and may return to the infantry class to be used as a precision shooter rifle. In addition, the domestic 88-type 5.8 mm general machine gun has been discontinued, and the disassembly should not be far away. As a result, our army lacks medium caliber sniper rifles equipped with synthetic battalion sniper platoon and medium caliber general machine guns equipped with rifle company (platoon), while foreign countries are still equipped with medium caliber sniper rifles and general machine guns on a large scale. In this way, our infantry units may be in a weak position against the opponent's firepower. Considering that 7.62 mm itself is a past tense, it is a shortcut to start with 8.6 mm caliber. From this point of view, whether the army will install 8.6 mm sniper rifles is worthy of attention.