Infantry
PLA's Infantry Support Weapons I: Type 67 7.62mm GPMG
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PLA's Infantry Support Weapons I:
Type 67 7.62mm General Purpose Machinegun
by Timothy Yan
The Type 67-II General Purpose Machinegun mounted on tripod.
Development History:
The original Type 67 medium machine gun was developed as a lightweight replacement for the Type 53 (SG43) and Type 57 (SGM) medium 7.62mm machine guns, both were originally copied from Russian designs.
Development of the Type 67 commenced in late 1959 led by Dr. Duo Ying Jian and his small team of researchers from Beijing Industrial Technology Academy. The design team incorporated features from machine guns already in Chinese production or had been produced previously. Consequently, the Type 67 can be seen to incorporates design features from the Type 26 (ZB26), Type 24 (Maxim-Vickers), Type 57 (SMG) and Type 56 (RPD) and indigenous design features. This design philosophy obviated the need to drastically redesign production tooling as the Type 67 could be produced with existing tooling.
Another reason for pushing the development of a new weapon was that by the late 1950s, the Sino-Soviet relationship began to deteriorating. It was unlikely, the Russian will offer any farther technical assistance nor selling their new design like the Kalashnikov PK machine gun to the Chinese.
A prototype was ready for firing range testing in 1963 and was tested against the two machine guns that it was intended to replace. Test results indicated that the prototype outperformed both the Type 53 and Type 57. The prototype then went onto a major design change phase. Up to that time, the Type 67 was designed only for tripod use. However, by the mid 1960’s, Chinese designers had gained access to captured American made M60 General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG) from the Vietnam War. A decision was made to change the Type 67 tripod-only configuration to a folding bipod along with a wooden butt stock, reminiscent of the M60. By the end of its development, the Type 67 had evolved into a GPMG that could be used on either bipod or tripod. The design was finalized in 1967 and production commenced shortly after.
