GCh-114

The GCh-114 (Formal designation: 114식 일반목적 기관총 / 一一四式一般目的機關銃, Irilsal-sik ilbanmogjŏk gigwanchong, "Type 114 general-purpose machine gun;" short designation 114식, irilsal-sik, "Type 114") is a belt-fed 5.7mm Quinn light machine gun designed in Menghe. It is intended as a replacement for the squad-level GCh-96, offering comparable range and fire rates in a much lighter package and compatibility with the same ammunition used by the JS-103.

With a mass of just over 7 kilograms, the GCh-114 is relatively lightweight for a machine gun, and because it fires a lighter cartridge, its 200-round belt weighs about as much as the 100-round belt of the GCh-96. It is also capable of accepting 30-round and 60-round box magazines from the JS-103, allowing squad members to share ammunition after running out of belts. The barrel is designed to allow for a relatively easy one-handed change, and both full-length and "paratroop-length" barrels are manufactured. The weapon reportedly performed very well in durability and reliability testing, and has been well-received among Menghean troops.

Development

Menghean interest in a belt-fed intermediate-caliber LMG first began to grow after the introduction of the JS-103 in 2003. Like the JS-67 before it, this new assault rifle had an LMG variant, the GCh-105, with a long barrel. Originally this weapon was intended to carry a 100-round drum magazine, but these proved unreliable in service, and by 2007 smaller 60-round quad-stack casket magazines were issued instead, limiting the weapon's ability to lay down sustained automatic fire. By contrast, the 7.5×54mm GCh-96 could fire from a 150-round belt, but even though it was lighter than the GCh-77 before it, it still required a gunner's assistant to carry the spare barrel and extra ammunition.

To help fill the gap in between the two weapons, the Insŏng New Arsenal began independent work on a belt-fed weapon chambered in 5.7mm Quinn. Glasic and Menghean tests had already confirmed that this cartridge had very good ballistics out to 800 meters, as it was originally designed for use on open plains and steppes, and at about half the total mass of the 7.5×54mm cartridge it would allow for lighter combat loads. Even so, the Menghean Army was initially skeptical about the need for a weapon which would render the GCh-105 redundant, so development proceeded slowly.

The designers at Insŏng struggled to meet competing demands for light weight and high durability, while also keeping costs attractive. For inspiration, they looked overseas at similar 5mm caliber machine guns, reviewing features which could be integrated into the new design as well as drawbacks which could be corrected. The final prototype was submitted for evaluation in 2012, but it received little attention until 2014, when the Innominadan Crisis launched the Menghean Army into a major unconventional war. In December of that year, Insŏng's belt-fed weapon was approved for service under the designation GCh-114, with motorized units on the Maverican border given first priority in deliveries.

Design

Layout

At first glance, the GCh-114 is a fairly conventional light machine gun, though it masks a few innovative design features. In addition to achieving the leading Menghean goals of durability and reliability, the designers aimed to shave down weight and bulk, using composite handguards, grips, and stocks. These polymer parts are modular and interchangeable, allowing special forces or foreign customers to customize the weapon as needed.

Operation

The GCh-114 fires from an open bolt, with the bolt carrier sitting in the rear of the receiver and sliding forward to chamber and fire a round when the trigger is pulled. The firing pin is fixed to the bolt carrier, and strikes the rear of the cartridge once the bolt has fully rotated into place. The bolt carrier group strongly resembles an inverted version of its counterpart on Insŏng's JS-103, with a six-lug rotating bolt and a long-stroke gas piston attached to a rugged bolt carrier.

Unlike most other light machine-guns in Septentrion, which use a variant of the MG42 system to feed rounds, the GCh-114 uses a feeding system with moving pawls that run under each cartridge in the belt and pull it forward as the bolt moves. The main advantage of this arrangement is that it results in a smaller, shorter feed tray cover, leaving space for an optic mounting rail on the upper receiver. A simple lever in the feed tray cover also raises a small red-painted peg above the top surface when rounds are in the tray; this peg provides a visual or (at night) tactile sign to the gunner that the feed tray is fully empty and a new belt can be inserted.

Another innovative feature is the use of a constant recoil system, with a long recoil spring that fully decelerates the bolt carrier before it can impact the back of the receiver. This makes the weapon much more controllable than even the GCh-105, allowing the gunner to fire sustained bursts while keeping the sights on target or fire accurately from the shoulder. The rate of fire is 600 rounds per minute, which further improves automatic control and allows a gunner to maintain suppressive fire for a longer period.

The fire selector lever is located on the trigger group and can be activated with the thumb. It has three settings: fully automatic (ㅈ, jadong), semi-automatic (ㅂ, ban-jadong), and safe (ㅏ, anjŏn). The semi-automatic setting could be used in combat to deliver precise fire or hide an LMG among a group of riflemen, but its main purpose is to help the gunner zero the weapon's sights.

The belt feed port, belt ejection port, cartridge ejection port, and magazine port all have spring-loaded dust covers which keep them isolated from the elements when the weapon is not in use. Once the bolt is pulled back, ridges on its sides release the retaining pegs for the first three ports, which are held open under spring tension until the operator folds them closed again. The one-piece magazine port folds inward when a magazine is inserted. The weapon is approved for over-the-beach operations and operations in muddy or sandy conditions, and although some reports consider it less reliable than the JS-67 and JS-103, it remains a fairly durable weapon.

Ammunition

The GCh-114 fires the 5.7mm Quinn round, which has been Menghe's standard intermediate rifle cartridge since 2003. Based on trial tests with both weapons, the Menghean Army claims that the ballistics of the 5.7mm Quinn fired from the GCh-114 are comparable to the ballistics of the 7.5×54mm round fired from the GCh-96 at ranges of out to 700 meters. Beyond this range, accuracy and in particular armor penetration drop more noticeably.

As on an assault rifle, the main advantage of the 5.7mm Quinn cartridge is that it weighs a little over half as much as its 7.5×54mm counterpart; thus, a 100-round belt for the GCh-96 and a 200-round belt for the GCh-114 are comparable in mass and bulk. In combination with the weapon's lighter empty weight, this means that the GCh-114 does not require a dedicated gunner's assistant, though additional ammunition belts or bags may be distributed around the squad.

Both 100-round and 200-round ammunition containers for the GCh-114 are in production, both of them in canvas pouches with zippered bottoms. These clip on to a fixture on the base of the receiver and feed through the left side. Spent cartridges and belt links are ejected out the right.

An interesting feature of the GCh-114 is its ability to accept 5.7×40mm rockback magazines. This allows the gunner to continue firing after exhausting all of his ammunition, or if logistical backlogs result in a shortage of disintegrating belts. The magazine port is on the left-hand side of the weapon, angled downward at 45 degrees from the horizontal, and its location prevents the simultaneous loading of a belt and a magazine. The weapon has been tested with 30- and 60-round box magazines and 75- and 100-round drum magazines, though in practice it would be unusual for any type except the 30-round magazine to be used, as the GCh-105/115 and GCh-114 would not normally exist in the same squad.

Testing with foreign FN Minimi examples revealed serious problems with the magazine feed, which resulted in frequent jams and sometimes damaged the magazine lips. This was attributed to the reduced load on the bolt, which normally has to work against the weight of the belt and advances each cartridge mechanically. With a magazine feed, the bolt often moves faster than the magazine spring can feed cartridges. To resolve this problem, the Insŏng New Arsenal added a gas regulator lever with three settings: position "2" is the standard belt-fed position, position "3" opens the port wider to maintain rate of fire when the weapon is muddy or fouled, and position "1" restricts the port to maintain the belt-fed rate of fire when a magazine is used.

Barrel

The GCh-114 uses a heavy, chrome-plated barrel for improved accuracy, wear resistance, and heat resistance. The barrel comes in two variants: a 470-millimeter full-length version for regular Army units, and a 320-millimeter short barrel for airborne troops and special forces. The two barrels are interchangeable on all weapons, but require different adjustments to the optics. Both barrel variants have a flash hider at the muzzle.

The barrel change process is designed to be relatively straightforward, simple enough to be accomplished with one hand while under fire. To remove the barrel, the gunner raises the handle to the vertical position, squeezes a pin on either side of the upper receiver, and pulls the barrel forward. The replacement barrel automatically locks into place when rammed back into the receiver. Barrel changes can be performed with the bolt in the forward or rear position, though Army manuals recommend cocking the bolt before a barrel change to ensure that there are no rounds in the chamber.

In 2018, Insŏng unveiled a barrel with an integral suppressor, also for special-forces use. The gas block on this version has the same three settings as on the standard version - magazine, belt, and fouled - but the gas aperture itself is re-sized to maintain the same rate of fire when using the suppressor.

Sights

One distinctive feature of the GCh-114 is its short feed tray cover, the product of a pawl-based feeding system. This arrangement means that the rear two-thirds of the upper receiver surface is permanently fixed in place, such that an optical sight mounted on rails there will not lose alignment when the feed tray cover is raised or its retaining pin replaced. The rails used are of the MARS type, and are compatible with Menghean, Dayashinese, and Glasic optics.

The handguard uses a MASS type frame, allowing for the mounting of custom bipods, vertical grips, laser sights, and flashlights. Barrels with permanently attached MARS rails for direct mounting of laser sights are known to be produced in small numbers, but have not been seen on regular Army-issue weapons.

In addition to its optics rail, the GCh-114 has a pair of fold-down iron sights, which are adjustable for range and windage. They resemble the backup iron sights on the SS-110 marksman rifle, also designed by Insŏng. Iron sights remain the default option for most regular Menghean Army units, though 4x magnification and red-dot optics are becoming more common.

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