W85

The W85 is a Chinese gas-operated heavy machine gun firing the Soviet-designed 12.7x108mm cartridge, developed by Norinco and in production since 1985. It was designed to be as light as possible for infantry use, with a small rectangular-section receiver and a thick gas tube below the barrel housing a conventional long-stroke piston. Beyond iron sights it carries rails for optics or anti-aircraft sights, and it is more accurate than the older Type 54 - the Chinese copy of the Soviet DShK - though its thinner barrel overheats more quickly.

That trade-off cost it the competition it was built for. In People's Liberation Army trials the W85 lost to the Type 85 as an infantry weapon and was never accepted in that role. It was instead adopted in a vehicle-mounted form as the QJC-88, a pintle-mounted, solenoid-fired version of the same gun on a cradle allowing elevation from -5 to +65 degrees. In that guise it is widespread in Chinese service, carried as the commander's heavy machine gun on the Type 99, Type 96, Type 15 and export Type 59 Durjoy tanks, and mounted on the Type 05 armoured personnel carrier, the Type 08 family including the ZSL-10 APC and ZTL-11 assault vehicle, the PLL-05 self-propelled howitzer and the Type 89 armoured fighting vehicle.

Export sales have been considerably broader than domestic infantry adoption. The W85 is used by Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, Mali, Nepal, Rwanda - whose peacekeepers carried it in Darfur - Sri Lanka, South Sudan and the Libyan National Army. Sudan manufactures it locally as the Khawad, and Khawad guns have been documented with Wagner Group personnel in Mali. During the Syrian civil war, Syrian Democratic Forces technicals were fitted with W85s, and the weapon has also been recorded with the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic State and the People's Defense Units. Ukrainian forces have fielded W85s since 2022, thought to originate from arms shipments to the Houthis intercepted in 2021.