The QCW-05 is a
blowback,
open bolt bullpup silenced submachine gun that is capable of either full automatic or semi-automatic fire. The QCW-05s light weight can be attributed to its small aluminum receiver and polymer construction which also lends itself well towards quicker mass-production.
Operation The QCW-05 has a low rate of fire in order to maintain controllability, a feature stressed from the beginning by the PLA for a weapon as light as a submachine gun. There is a thumb fire mode selector on the left side of the weapon directly above the grip with a semi-automatic position (1), full automatic (2), and
safety (0) and an ejection port on the right side of the weapon. A removable metal screw-on cylindrical suppressor is attached to the barrel of the gun. The carrying handle, which is located above the compact aluminum receiver, houses the charging handle. The QCW-05 shares the common trait of other bullpup weapons of being suboptimal to fire from the left shoulder given the placement of the ejection port and its proximity to the operator's face when firing.
Ammunition This weapon is designed for the
5.8×21mm DCV05 sub-sonic round that is also used by
QSZ-92-5.8,
QSZ-11 and
QSW-06 pistol. The use of the 5.8×21mm DV05 subsonic round reduced the QCW-05's muzzle velocity to approximately and gives the submachine gun an effective range of which is considered adequate for a silenced weapon. Ammunition is fed from a detachable curved fifty round, four column, double stacked box (another initial requirement of the PLA) at the rear of the submachine gun.
Accessories As the QCW-05 is designed for general military use rather than being used only in a specialized niche role, a suppressor can be a hindrance when a situation calls for an emphasis on the performance or size of the weapon rather than its noise reduction capabilities, which is why the suppressor is removable, or in the case of the QCQ-05 variant, completely absent. Once the suppressor is removed, the QCW-05 is essentially the same as the QCQ-05 and can fire the DAP92 round as well. ==Variants==