Russian Army Snipers Have Rifles and Ammo That Can Pierce U.S. Body Armor

Charlie Gao

Security, Europe

Super guns? 

The Russian involvement in Syria and Ukraine has provided a wealth of experience to the Russian military. One of the hallmarks of these engagements is the continued use of sniper tactics. As a result, the modern Russian sniper has evolved far beyond the relatively primitive technology used during the Cold War. Most notably, significant attention has been given to sniper systems that have the ability to penetrate body armor. There are currently three sniper systems in current use by the Russian military that pose a significant threat to American troops wearing body armor. Taken together, these systems cover all possible ranges in an engagement: the SVDK, various .338 Lapua systems and the ASVK.

The current Russian standard sniper weapons in 7.62x54R—the SV Dragunov and the SV-98—are soundly defeated by American body armor. Both rifles fire the 7N14 armor-piercing sniper round (152gr at ~2750fps) and 7N13 armor-piercing rounds. These rounds have similar specifications to the M2 AP Ball (150gr at 2740fps) specification, which the ESAPI/XSAPI rifle plates currently in use by the U.S. military are rated to stop.

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