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Originally Posted by PlasmaKrab
Quote:
Originally Posted by redcoat2
Yes. I think the flamethrower may be a Chinese Type 74 – which is a direct copy of the Russian LPO-50. I don’t know when NORINCO in China started to manufacture the weapon. It may be that the Chinese started to make the Type 74 when they were still on good terms with the Soviets – a few years before 1979.
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OK, I had't found info about the Chinese version. According to Wikipedia there is also a Chinese Type-58 flamethrower, but no more info there. |
The Wikipedia Type 58 flamethrower is something of a mystery to me. I would be interested in learning more about it – if it exists.
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Originally Posted by PlasmaKrab
Standard PLA practice AFAIK, but the Type-XX would generally be the year of type-classification, not IOC. Given the notoriously long trial runs favored by the PLA, it may actually have been rushed into service in '79, or have been very shortly in service outside training units.
OTOH the IOC of the LPO-50 itself (in USSR) is less and less clear the more I look into it. Apparently no one has accurate info and it is just consistently described as "post-war" which could mean anything from 1946 to 1989.
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Indeed. The year would be the year of classification. However, I think the Chinese may have been quick to produce and introduce a tried and tested weapon. It may even be – and I am speculating now - that the Soviets gave the Chinese the design so that they could produce it for Communist forces in the ongoing Vietnam War. I would not be surprised if the PLA had the Type 74 in 1979 – five years after receiving the design.
The Russian Warrior link you posted earlier suggests that the LPO-50 may have been introduced around 1968. It could be correct. The Americans captured LP-50s in Vietnam. A CIA Intelligence Memorandum entitled ‘Sources of Military Equipment to Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Military Forces’ - written in 1968 - shows that LP-50s were captured as early as that year.