laststandonzombieisland

The Taiwan-based Republic of China Army has always looked very American-ish in terms of equipment and the force recently showed off some updates that included a curious AR.

The 130,000-member force, which traces its lineage to the old KMT of 1924, this year reinstated mandatory conscription to include a year-long active-duty military service followed by a reserve period that would see its mobilized strength swell to some 2 million in times of national crisis.

Likewise, the ROC Army is also changing how it keeps its infantry sharp, moving from traditional static flat ranges to a more dynamic drill that includes a running element, firing from a barricade in three positions, and inducing failures and emergency clearance drills via mixing dummy rounds in with live rounds.

The drill, seen in the below video from the Army’s public affairs service, also gives a peek at the rarely seen Type 65 rifle.

 

The Type 65, developed by the country’s 205th Arsenal, may look a lot like an M16A2, but it is a quite different beast, using the same sort of short-stroke gas system as seen on the AR18 rather than the direct impingement gas system of the AR15 family. Meanwhile, it is STANAG magazine compatible and some other components of the AR15 are interchangeable with the platform.

Adopted in 1975, the Type 65 replaced older American-supplied platforms such as the M1 Carbine and M1 Garand and has itself been augmented by later domestic designs such as the Type 91, which has a more M4 flavor but still maintains the AR18 style action seen on the T65.