#Taiwan

Local news reports that the Republic of China (Taiwan)’s Army has placed an order for 25,000 new T112 service rifles. The first batch of T112 service rifles is due for delivery in 2025, formerly unveiled as the XT112 the rifle has been in development for several years. The XT112 was unveiled in September 2023 at the TADTE defence show in Taipei.

In this article, we’ll present to you the first part of Underground Arms Watch December edition’s look into notable seizures of criminally manufactured and modified weapons seized off the streets. Read last month’s post here.

Last year Wolf announced the they were bringing in a somewhat rare cartridge, 9X39. For the longest time the 9X39 round was somewhat shrouded in mystery. It is supposedly armor piercing and so banned from importation. Well last November they started to import the commercial version of 9X39 into the US. They originally imported older steel cased versions of 9×39 but those will be phased out for brass cased ammo as seen in the photo above.

Chen Lee, aka SMG LEE, recently shared this photo of a target that he saw in Taiwan. According to my wife, the top right says “Holding gun mode, Half Person target”. The bottom right says “Made by Security Police Number 1 Team”

Taiwan’s 205th Armory small arms design bureau has unveiled a 7.62x51mm NATO Designated Marksman’s rifle at the 2017 Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition as evidenced by the Sohu news agency. Designated the XT107, it is a 7.62x51mm NATO version of a modular 5.56x45mm NATO rifle of the same name. Taiwan has had this modular service rifle in development since at least 2013 with the XT97, later renamed the XT105 in 2015, and appears to have been renamed XT107 in the latest iteration. Unfortunately, we haven’t had an in-depth look at the internals of the rifle since the XT97 so we cannot discuss at length about what changes the design has undergone. However, one thing is for sure and that is Taiwanese Defense Forces still appear to be armed with the 5.56x45mm NATO T91 service rifle, and as of now we don’t have any information showing if the adoption of a new service rifle will take place in the near future.

This video clip was posted on 青年日報 (Youth Daily) Facbook page.

The photo above is a screen shot from a Taiwanese news report about the sales of the T91 upper receiver being imported by Wolf Ammo.

Two days ago I published a blog post with diagrams of the REVOLUTIONARY Taiwanese T86 rifle. This AR-15-style rifle featured not only a self-contained piston gas system back in 1998, long before the piston-AR craze in the USA, but it also featured the first drop-in trigger for an AR-15. Sadly this rifle was as unknown in the West as it was innovative. 

Phil’s, Tom’s and my inbox have been blowing up with tips and emails from concerned gun owners worried about Mossberg’s lawsuits against 12 manufacturers of drop-in AR-15 trigger groups ( read our post here and here catch up with the drama). We are only aware of 12 manufacturers being sued, but there could well be others being sued or who have already settled. The one company notable for not being sued is CMC Triggers. They have licensed the patent from Mossberg and are supportive of the lawsuit. CMC made a public statement here.

The Taiwanese small arms industry has been showing off its most recent developments at press events and expos recently, including the new XT104 9mm submachine gun. From Two Birds Flying:

Tactical SMGLee posted this on Facebook.

In 2013, TFB reported on the latest developments of the Taiwanese next-generation rifle program, then called “XT-97”. It is now being reported that the latest variants are called “XT-105”, and that the rifle, developed by the 205th Armory of the Armament Bureau, may be on its way to adoption by Taiwanese forces soon. In an unorthodox effort to showcase the new rifle, the 205th Armory was showing off the gold-plated example in the title image:

This was posted on Facebook.

Last year we published photos of the service rifle being developed by the Taiwanese military. According to the Youtube video embedded below they are also developing a 9mm submachine gun. The submachine gun is patterned after the rifle and probably shares a number of common parts. It has a folding buttstock (someone on the video says the stock has been 3D printed and they are testing different designs), ambidextrous controls and a full length top rail. The barrel looks to be about 7″ in length.

The Taiwanese military have been developing a modern assault rifle since 2008. Four years ago they unveiled their first prototype, named the Type XT97. The latest prototype has just been unveiled and we were lucky enough to have been sent detailed photos of the new rifle. It bears a superficial resemblance to the original prototype but looking closely a lot has changed both externally and internally. The new prototype is a lot more polished and looks production ready.