Russia offers Dragunov sniper rifle upgrade, demonstration to army next month

Russia is offering the Indian Army a comprehensive upgrade of the Dragunov sniper rifle in service with almost all frontline battalions, with a demonstration planned next month to showcase improved accuracy and ease of use of the modified guns.

First procured in the 1990s, the Indian Dragunovs have slowly fallen behind contemporary sniper rifles that have improved sights and mounts that have not only increased accuracy but also the strike range to over 1 km.

The upgrade pack, presentations for which have already been given to the Indian Army, is being offered as a low cost alternative to purchasing a large number of new snipers for frontline troops. India has brought small quantities of sniper rifles from Israel and the US but the Dragunov still remains its mainstream long range infantry weapon.


“The Kalashnikov SAG SVD Dragunov Free-float Chassis is one-pack upgrade set which will gives it Optics, Bipods, mounting platform and a long free-float fore-end at the same time,” Valentin Vlasenko, Civilian Small Arms R&D Head of Kalashnikov told ET.

Russian officials said that for the cost of purchasing one new sniper rifle of the class, India can easily upgrade four of its Dragunovs for future service. “The upgrade drastically improves the adjustability of the shooter to the target and makes it comfortable even for troops that are not highly trained,” Vlasenko said, adding that acquiring new sniper rifles would also have the additional burden of training troops from scratch.

The Russian company said that only it has the rights to certify upgrades to the Indian Dragunovs and its offer includes training of troops and workshop personnel to carry out work at the unit level itself. “The upgrade can be done at field level workshops and only simple tools are needed for it. A trained person can undertake the entire upgrade is about an hour,” he said.

Presentation to the Indian Army were made in May after it expressed interest in the upgrde, with the first on field demonstration set to take place in July. Officials said that in case of an agreement, the upgrade could also have a Make in India component and production lines could be set up at existing factories in India to manufacture the upgrade kits.