Sudanese army has selected Chinese-made QBZ-97 assault rifle for its Kombo Future Soldier System 221.

Since many years, the local defense Company MIC (Military Industry Corporation of Sudan) has launched the development of new combat gear for soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces under the name of “Kombo”

To meet the requirements that Sudanese individual soldier equipment should be digitalized, MIC has developed Integrated Soldier Combat System (SICS or Kombo) to provide digitized weapon equipment which is designed to enhance individual soldiers and the squads integrated combat capabilities, through regarding a soldier as a platform and integrated use of advanced technologies - fire-power lethality technology, day and night video sight technology, high performance computer technology, self-organizing information network technology, ballistic protection technology, etc.

The whole system of new Kombo Future Soldier System includes PDA (Personal Digital assistant) with GPS (Global Positioning System), LCD monitor, day/night shooting sights, new assault rifle with grenade launcher, communication system, new helmet and individual body armor.

The QBZ-97 is the export version, which is similar to the QBZ-95 in all respects except that it is chambered for 5.56 mm NATO instead of the original Chinese 5.8 mm cartridge and has a deep magazine well designed to accept STANAG magazines.

The QBZ-97 assault rifle uses polymer materials in its construction, fires NATO standard 5.56x45mm bullets, and employs a bullpup configuration similar to the British SA80, French FAMAS, Austrian Steyr AUG, South African Vektor CR-21, Israeli Tavor, or the SAR-21.

The QBZ-97 can launch rifle grenades from the barrel using blank ammunition. It can also mount the QLG91B (Type 91B) under-barrel grenade launcher. This 35 mm launcher weighs 1.45 kg and has a lenght of 310 mm. It loads from the breech and fires grenades at 75 m/s.