The Type 80 is a general-purpose machine gun manufactured by Norinco

Norinco

The China North Industries Corporation , official English name Norinco, manufactures vehicles , machinery, optical-electronic products, oil field equipment, chemicals, light industrial products, explosives and blast materials, civil and military firearms and ammunition, etc...

 in the People's Republic of China, based on the Russian Kalashnikov PKM

PK machine gun

The PK is a 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun designed in the Soviet Union and currently in production in Russia. The PK machine gun was introduced in the 1960s and replaced the SGM and RPD machine guns in Soviet service...

 series. The machine gun was certified for design finalisation in 1980 and entered the PLA service in the mid-1980s, specifically in 1983. The Type 80 was intended as a successor to the Chinese independently developed Type 67

Type 67 machine gun

The Type 67 is a 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun used by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It shares some design features with the Soviet-built PK machine gun, but is a true hybrid of a number of different machine gun models, including both Soviet and Western designs that had been in...

, doing well in tests conducted in the Chengdu Military Region before it was dropped and instead, opted to keep the Type 67 GPMG in use. Only a few Type 80s were used in the People's Liberation Army Marine Corps

People's Liberation Army Marine Corps

The People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps is marine corps of the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Navy...

 and a modified Type 80, named as Type 86, was then accepted by PLA armor units.

Design

The Type 80 chambers and fires the 7.62 x 54 mm R round. It is a gas-operated, air-cooled, belt-fed, fully automatic firearm. It can fire on both the tripod and the foldable bipod on the gas tube below the barrel. Belts are used from 100-round boxes in the light machine gun configurations, and from 200- or 250-round boxes in tripod-mounted applications. The machine gun uses an open iron sight, but can also be fitted with an optical or night-vision sight. A version of the Type 80 (CF06) is also available in 7.62 NATO caliber.

Users

: In service with the Royal Cambodian Army

Royal Cambodian Army

The Royal Cambodian Army is a part of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. It has ground forces which numbered about 175,000 divided into eleven divisions of infantry, with integrated armour and artillery support...

.: In service with the Bangladesh Army

Bangladesh Army

The Bangladesh Army is the land forces branch and the largest of the three uniformed service of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The primary mission of the Army is to provide necessary forces and capabilities in support of Bangladesh's security and defense strategies including defense of the nation's...

 and Presidential Guards Regiment. : In service with the Sri Lanka Army. Around 200 Type 80 GPMGs were supplied by Norinco

Norinco

The China North Industries Corporation , official English name Norinco, manufactures vehicles , machinery, optical-electronic products, oil field equipment, chemicals, light industrial products, explosives and blast materials, civil and military firearms and ammunition, etc...

as part of several defense agreements between China and Sri Lanka.