Chinese bullets need to improve: Report

China is still using a bullet type that was developed nearly 30 years back and there is room for improvement, a media report said on Saturday.

China's bullet-making technology has caught up with the foreign countries, boasting advantages in many performance indicators but they still need to improve, reported People's Daily citing an analysis report posted on China Military online by Yao Ziqian and Li Wei from the PLA National Defense University.

The report said the 5.8mm standard bullet was successfully developed in 1987 and is only used by China as the main bullet type.

The light bullet (generic bullet) is only suitable for individual weapons and squad light machine guns, while heavy bullet (machine gun bullet) can be used for the QBB-95 squad machine gun, QBU-88 sniper rifle and other firearms with the effective firing range of over 1,000 meters.

The report noted that due to the same shape, shell and primer, light bullets and heavy bullets can be exchanged so that light weapons of various types can use as common bullets, which is of great significance for simplifying logistics support and providing mutual bullet support in the battlefield.

Compared with the NATO's 5.56mm bullet (SS109) and Russia's 5.45mm bullet (7N6), China's 5.8mm bullet (DBP-87) features high initial velocity, long direct range and strong penetration, which ensures its high resistance to external impact, high firing rate and hitting precision.

The report observed that the Chinese bullet is inferior to foreign bullets in various aspects, including performance isn't good enough, material of gun propellant is of poor performance and finally R&D capability of new-type bullets is insufficient.