page_title: QLZ-87 grenade launcher
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: QLZ-87 grenade launcher / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: Ugandan soldiers serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) man positions along a defensive line 15 May 2012, in the area surrounding Baidoa airstrip in central Somalia. An advance joint-contingent of 120 Ugandan and Burundian AMISOM troops are on the ground in Baidoa, 240km west of Mogadishu and are the first forces the AU mission has deployed outside the Somali capital since its initial deployment in 2007. Ethiopian forces took control of Baidoa from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group Al Shabaab in February of this year, one of string of strategic losses Shabaab has suffered with the group losing ground on three separate fronts to allied Kenyan and Somali National Army (SNA) forces in the south of the country; being driven from the Somali capital by SNA and AMISOM forces and conceding territory to the Ethiopians and pro-government militia in the west. AMISOM will soon deploy several thousand troops to Baidoa and the surrounding area, replacing the Ethiopian forces currently on the ground and expanding its operations throughout the country. AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE.Note: The grenade launcher is a QLZ87 in light configuration with 6 round magazine.
context_page_description: The QLZ-87 35 mm automatic grenade launcher is an air-cooled, gas operated fully automatic weapon and is crew transportable with limited amounts of ammunition.
  The QLZ-87 is being complemented by the QLZ-04, which is fed from a belt and thus is better suited to be mounted on tripods and vehicles.
context_section_description: The QLZ-87 is in fact a derivative of the Type 85 heavy machine gun, featuring a similar tubular steel receiver, direct gas impingement operation, and flap locks (derived from the Degtyarov-Shpagin system featured on the DShK machine gun). It is magazine-fed from 6- or 15-round drums from the bottom; in order to make room for ammunition to be fed from the bottom, the fire selector controls are mounted on the right side and offer safe, semi-automatic, and automatic firing modes. The grenade launcher retains the bipod of the W87 and weighs the same at 12 kg (26 lb) with an 8 kg (18 lb) tripod, though the new tripod has articulated legs and a crank elevation adjustment. Its carrying handle is an external part of the bolt group, which is cycled by redirected propellant gas as part of the operating system, but unlike the M16 rifle propellant gasses are not vented into the receiver; it also functions as the charging handle and forward assist. Once the bolt group starts to recoil, remaining gasses are immediately vented outward and spent cases are ejected directly upwards. To manage recoil the weapon has a large, twin-port muzzle brake, thick rubber butt pad, and an internal buffer to the rear of the bolt group, but recoil is still harsh and only semi-automatic fire is viable when not mounted.
  While American and Russian AGLs are heavy, crew-served tripod-mounted weapons employed at battalion-level, the QLZ-87 in its "light" configuration can be used by one soldier from the shoulder or bipod as a company-level support weapon. In this configuration it is typically fired semi-automatically and fed from the 6-round drum. In its "heavy" configuration (which includes the tripod) it is carried by a crew of three, and can make effective use of the 15-round drum and fully automatic fire. Like heavier AGLs it can be pintle-mounted on vehicles, but troop feedback indicates mounted magazine reloading is both difficult, and frequent because of the low ammunition capacity.
caption: Ugandan soldiers of the African Union Mission in Somalia armed with a QLZ-87 in light configuration
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