The Chinese People’s Liberation Army have all but abandoned the venerable Type 79 Submachine Gun in favour of the newer QCW-05 bullpup personal defence weapon. It seems, however, that the Type 79 remains popular with China’s SWAT teams.

Photos of upgraded and modded Type 79s have emerged. The ageing Submachine guns have been outfitted with new rails, stocks, accessories, and optics to bring them into the 21st Century. Originally developed in the late 1970s, the Type 79 is a select fire submachine gun chambered in 7.62×25mm Tokarev. While the Type 79s has a formidable rate of fire, around approximately 1,000 rpm and the benefit of the ease of maintenance, it was superseded by the QCW-05/Type 05 in the mid-2000s.

Guangzhou City SWAT with refitted Type 79s (China Defense Blog)

The Type 05 ‘Qiāng Chōngfēng Wēishēng’, or suppressed submachine gun, has a number of impressive features including a quad stack 50 round magazine, subsonic 5.8×21mm ammunition and a compact bullpup layout

A QCW-05 in the field (Best China News)

Adaptations to the Type 79 are no new thing, the process began back in the early 2000s. This photograph below from 2011 shows how Guangzhou Police refitted their Type 79s with a railed forend for optics and accessories mounting as well as a new muzzle device.

Close up of a Guangzhou Police Officers’ updated Type 79, note how it still has its original top-folding stock (China Defense Blog)

Photo of another Chinese SWAT Officer from 2013, the Type 79 has a railed fore-end but still uses the original iron sights (Chinese Military Review)

China Defense Blog shared some more recent photographs which show that the Type 79’s top folding stock has been replaced by a polymer, possibly side folding, buttstock and a new forend has been fitted over the barrel.

The side mounted optics rail allows for a number of optic variations (China Defense Blog)

Stacking up for entry with almost the entire team armed with Type 79s (China Defense Blog)

It appears to have 12 and 6 o’clock Picatinny rails and what appear to be MLOK-style attachment points at 3 and 9 o’clock. Unlike the earlier modifications, the removal of the older folding stock allows the mounting of optics further back and these Type 79s appear to have a side mounted optics rail. This is necessary as the Type 79 has an AK-style top cover.

Source: China Defense Blog