Chinese Armed Police evaluates special weapons in Sino-Russia Drill

In Sino-Russia "Cooperation 2007" three-day anti-terror drill, Chinese Armed Police (CAP) Commando Unit got a great opportunity to evaluate Kinds of special anti-terror weapon systems. the Commando Unit actually is the SPU (special police unit) of CAP Beijing Division's 13th team and is named with "Snow Leopard" before Leaving to Russia.

The most noticeable is that members of "Snow Leopard" select one kind of helical-feed SMG (submachine gun) for close combat. According to previous Chinese resources, the standard individual self-defense weapon of SPU member is Type 92 pistol and Type 97 Assaulting Rifle, and the latter is usually believed to be unsuitable in close anti-terror combat. Comparing western well-known Special Forces and SWATs, Chinese SPU has been puzzled by Type 79 SMG's ultra-high fire rate, low accuracy and low magazine capacity.

For the upcoming Beijing Olympic Game, Chinese Government focuses on the security protection, which is mainly responsible by CAP Beijing Division. And CAP once planned to arm its SPUs with western weapons like MP5 SMG, but the plan was terminated for price and political reasons.

And Chinese state-run weapon manufactures all eyes on this chance brought by Olympic Game and in succession introduce new SMGs to Armed Police SPUs. Changfeng helical-feed submachine gun is the newest competitor.

Changfeng helical-feed SMG is developed by Chongqing Changfeng Machinery LTD, which is under China South Corporation. Its designer is the same people (Mr. Qing Shangsheng) who design Type 92 pistol. And Changfeng helical-feed SMG was inspired by U.S.'s Calico Weapon in early 1990s and Chinese designer invented a new helical magazine to realize rapid manual loading. At beginning, Changfeng helical-feed SMG is developed for PLA special forces, but PLA finally pass off this weapon for its experimental design.

"Snow Leopard" testing Changfeng SMG proved the rumor that Chinese People's Armed Police had been interested in this weapon for years. Chinese media's photo showed that "Snow Leopard" 4-man-team use 3 Changfeng SMGs with 0ne Type 97 Assaulting rifle. And with this compacter individual weapon, special armed policemen can make more complicated tactic action when fighting against "terrorists".

After its birth, Changfeng SMG is criticized for no boltstop decive, but Chinese designer explained that the top-mounted magazine can be made by translucent polymer to allow the shooter to see how much ammunition he has. However, China's polymer quality is not very good so magazine often get jammed after impacts in action. "Snow Leopard" uses a conventional metal cartridge and no detail can be found about boltstop device.

Besides, "Snow Leopard" demonstrated lots of other "anti-terror" equipments, including climbing attack vehicle(modified by Ford F-350 and adding MARS Tension-leg Platform), handy laser dazzler and "Hunter" Net Shooter. It is interested that Israel ODF’s EyeBall R1 Surveillance Ball is found in "Snow Leopard" team. And O.D.F. Optronics Ltd never declares this business.