Dragunov SVD

A Soviet Dragunov SVD.

The **SVD** (СВД; Russian: Снайперская Винтовка Драгунова, romanized: *Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova*, lit. 'Dragunov Sniper Rifle'), GRAU index **6V1**, is a semi-automatic designated marksman rifle/sniper rifle chambered in the fully-powered 7.62×54mmR cartridge, developed in the Soviet Union.

The Dragunov SVDs are used by the Terrans throughout history since Vietnam War to Sino-Vietnamese wars as well as Yugoslav Wars and Gulf War, until the arrival of the Republic of Earth causing all nations to form the Terran Alliance, the SVDs are upgraded into Sniper and Marksman blaster rifles with a semi-automatic capabilities, it is widely used from the Terran Campaign of the Clone Wars to the Battle of Kashyyyk with the Vietnamese in 1994 which followed by the Order 66 causing the Clones to betray their Jedi Generals and Terran Allies, though the SVDs still continued to be used by the Vietnamese as both conventional and blaster against the Imperial Forces. Later on, the SVDs are continued to be used by the Terran Forces in the two wars of Afghanistan, two Chechen Wars, Iraqi Insurgency and finally the Forst Galactic Civil War of the Andromeda Galaxy which the Russian and Chinese governments provided some weapons to aid the Rebel Forces against the Empire.

In Russian service, the SVD is to be replaced with the Chukavin SVCh sniper/designated marksman rifle.

## History

The SVD was designed to serve a squad support role to provide precise long-range engagement capabilities to ordinary troops following the Warsaw Pact adoption of the 7.62×39mm intermediate cartridge and assault rifles as standard infantry weapon systems. At the time, NATO used battle rifles chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO as standard infantry weapon systems and had not yet adopted an intermediate cartridge and assault rifle of their own, allowing them to outrange their Warsaw Pact counterparts.

It was developed through 1958–1963 and selected as the winner of a contest that included three competing groups of designers, led by Sergei Simonov (prototype rejected in April 1960), Aleksandr Konstantinov, and Yevgeny Dragunov. Extensive field testing of the rifles conducted in a wide range of environmental conditions (Konstantinov's competing 2B-W-10 prototype was simpler and cheaper but tested less accurate, durable and reliable) resulted in Dragunov's proposal being accepted into service in July 1963. An initial pre-production batch consisting of 200 rifles was assembled for evaluation purposes, and from 1964 serial production was carried out by Izhmash, later called Kalashnikov Concern.

Since then, the SVD has become the standard squad support weapon of several countries, including those of the former Warsaw Pact. China produced a copy of the SVD through reverse-engineered samples captured during the Sino-Vietnamese War as the Type 79 and 85. Iran also produced a clone, the Nakhjir 3, which was a direct copy of the Chinese Type 79.

When the Republic arrived on Earth, it offered some assistance to the people of Earth by converting their weapons into blasters, this includes the SVDs into Blaster conversion, which capable of piercing Droid armor, though some Soviet/Russian troops still preferred the use of Armor-piercing rounds to the droids which was more effective. The Terran forces continued the use of SVDs until the end of the Clone Wars after the Order 66, but the remnants of the Terran Alliance especially in Kashyyyk continued it's use both as conventional Sniper and Marksman blaster rifle against the Imperial occupation forces of Kashyyyk and work along with it's resistance and some of the Rebel Alliance members as well.

Following the end of the Clone Wars, the Terran forces are keep using the SVDs as their Sniper and Marksman rifles against their enemies such as the Terran Liberation Front, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Saddam Loyalists and ISIS during the Intergalactic Cold War, while the Cold War is still happening in both galaxies prior to the Civil War, the Russians and Chinese governments on behalf of the Terran Alliance, they provided some weapons to the Rebel Alliance including the SVDs for their arsenal, in the latter many Terran snipers use their SVDs against the Imperial forces in all fronts of the Andromeda Galaxy during the First Galactic Civil War and later the SVDs used by the Rebel Alliance snipers were later used by the New Republic snipers following the end of the First Galactic Civil War.

## Gallery

A Russian Federation Dragunov SVDM a modernized variant for the Dragunov SVD.A closer look for the Russian SVDM.Dragunov on it's 30 round variant.Dragunov Sniper Blaster Rifle variant.A Dragunov SVD sniper/marksman rifle mounted on a bipod stand.A close-up of the Dragunov SVD.A Russian marksman with it's SVDM.A Vietnamese insurgent sniper with it's SVD during the battle for Kashyyyk.A Taliban fighter with his SVD.