RPD

Description

The Soviet RPD (Ruchnoy Pulemyot Degtyaryova) is belt-fed machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War Two, to bridge the gap between the outdated M1910 Maxim and the magazine fed DP-27 (28).

Although the design was finalized in late 1944, the war was almost at an end with German forces in full retreat, therefore full scale production was temporarily sidelined until 1948 and it was finally introduced ‘on-mass’ to the Soviet armed forces and its allies in 1953.

It fires the same 7.62×39mm cartridge as the Kalashnikov family of weapons, which is fed by means of a 100 round belt. This belt is stored in a removable drum belt box/container, fitted to a mount below the receiver. Unlike other belt fed weapons, rather than extracting the cartridge backwards as the working parts move rearwards, the cartridge is forced forward through the belt during the bolts forward action. The Hungarian licensed RPD had a modified belt that held the cartridges in place better than the Soviet design, which in-tern was replicated by the Chinese on their copy known as the Type 56 LMG.

The RPD has seen extensive use since its introduction, not only in the old Soviet Union, but under license in many ‘East vs West’ wars from Korea through to Vietnam. As well as scores of African and Middle Eastern conflicts, including Iraq & Afghanistan. Along with military use, the RPD also proved very popular with irregular forces and terrorist groups from the IRA to ISIS.