The Type 99 (九九式軽機関銃, Kyūkyū-shiki Kei-kikanjū) was a Japanese light machine gun designed by Kijirō Nambu. Along with the Type 96, the Type 99 was one of the main infantry machine guns of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
History[]
The Type 99 was developed in response to criticisms regarding the Type 96 machine gun; specifically, many of the critiques were aimed at the low stopping power of the reduced-load 6.5×50mm cartridge for which the Type 96 was chambered. To correct this issue, the Type 99 was chambered in the more powerful 7.7×58mm cartridge which was already in wide usage by the Imperial Japanese Army.
Production of the Type 99 was handled by the state-owned arsenals at Nagoya and Kokura, and it was accepted service with both the Army and Navy in 1939. It saw extensive use during World War II, and production ended in 1945 with Japan's defeat. In total, around 50,000 Type 99s were produced throughout the war.
Design[]
The Type 99 was a gas-operated machine gun adapted from the Type 96, which in turn was based on the Czech Zb.26. Internally and externally, the Type 99 was almost identical to the Type 96, with some small but important modifications. Most prominently, it was chambered for the heavier 7.7×58mm cartridge, which was similar in performance to the British .303 round.
The oiling device built into the Type 96's magazine was dropped for the Type 99, as the breech movement had been improved to eliminate the jamming issues prevalent in earlier Japanese machine guns. The Type 99 also had a large flash hider on the muzzle, which was designed to eliminate the excessive muzzle flash given off by the Type 96.
The bayonet fittings of the Type 96 were retained, but were similarly rarely put to use. A new feature of the Type 99 was the addition of a folding monopod located on the underside of the stock.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||