SVD meaning in Military and Defence ?

The Dragunov sniper rifle (formal Russian: Сна́йперская Винто́вка систе́мы Драгуно́ва образца́ 1963 года, Snáyperskaya Vintóvka sistém'y Dragunóva obraz'tsá 1963 goda (SVD-63), officially "Sniper Rifle, System of Dragunov, Model of the Year 1963") (GRAU index 6V1 (ГРАУ Индекс 6В1)) is a semi-automatic designated marksman rifle chambered in 7.62×54mmR and developed in the Soviet Union.

The Dragunov was designed as a squad support weapon since, according to Soviet and Soviet-derived military doctrines, long-range engagement ability was lost to ordinary troops when submachine guns and assault rifles (which are optimized for close-range and medium-range, rapid-fire combat) were adopted.

It was developed in 1957–1963 and selected as the winner of a contest that included three competing groups of designers, led by Sergei Simonov, Aleksandr Konstantinov and Yevgeny Dragunov. Extensive field testing of the rifles conducted in a wide range of environmental conditions 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 Dragunov has become the standard squad support weapon of several countries, including those of the former Warsaw Pact. China produced an unlicensed 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.