A bit of a change in looking at Western and Russian weaponry as we look into China's own weapons design.  We are no strangers to China-made weapons in airsoft as we have Real Sword Type 97 Bullpup Rifles that were of Chinese design from the ground up. There are already much advances in Chinese weapons technology development over the years that it in some areas, it is able to match Western weaponry.

In the case of the OICW, or the Objective Individual Combat Weapon, China is one of the only three countries developing for use by their troops. The first two are the USA (XM29 OICW and XM25 CDTE) and South Korea (K-11 DAW).  The OICW is the next generation combat assault system that combines an assault rifle and a launcher which is smaller than a grenade launcher that can send an airburst munition that is effective against enemies who are behind cover.

The weapon in question is called the ZH-05/Type 05which is combination of the QBZ-03/Type 03 Assault Rifle and  a 20mm airburst grenade launcher. Two photos of the ZH-05 were posted earlier this month at the PLA Facebook Page (we cannot confirm if this is an official page, but looks like a PLA fan created it) showing the ZH-05 being handled by the PLA Marines who have developed a preference for the weapon.

The 20mm airburst grenade is programmable just like the XM25 and K-11, allowing  for a more accurate launch and burst at the target area. The ZH-05 is lighter than the first two but the launcher is manually loaded one 20mm grenade at a time as compared to magazine fed system which the K-11 (6 rounds) and XM25 (4 rounds). ZH-05 20mm Grenade has more destructive payload as compared to the 20mm rounds of both the XM25 and K-11 as carries less electronics, allowing it to carry more explosives and claimed blast radius 25 feet and a range of 800 meters.

Apart from the anti-personnel airburst grenade, there are two more 20mm grenades developed for the ZH-05 according to Popular Science. One is the anti-material impact grenade and the shotgun style canister grenade which can be used to shoot down small enemy drones.

The ZH-05 design is simple and makes it easy to handle as compared to the problem prone XM25 and K-11. If the PLA is able to avoid the problems that the Americans and South Koreans are facing with their OICW design, then the ZH-05 might become the first widely used OICW in a major country's armed forces.

(First batch of Type 05 OICW rifle issue)