Degtyaryov machine gun

DP machine gun
DP-27
Type	Light machine gun
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
In service	1928–present
Used by	See Users
Wars	Spanish Civil War Winter War World War II Second Sino-Japanese War Korean War Chinese Civil War First Indochina War Vietnam War Hungarian Revolution of 1956[1] Laotian Civil War North Yemen Civil War[2] Cambodian Civil War Cambodian-Vietnamese War Rhodesian Bush War Portuguese Colonial War Afghan Wars Sino-Vietnamese War Sri Lankan Civil War[citation needed] First Nagorno-Karabakh War[3] Georgian Civil War[4] Yugoslav Wars Somali Civil War Iraq War[5] First Libyan Civil War Northern Mali conflict Syrian Civil War[6] Russo-Ukrainian War[5]
Production history
Designer	Vasily Degtyaryov
Designed	1927
Produced	1928–1950s
No. built	795,000[7]
Variants	See Variants
Specifications
Mass	9.12 kg (20.11 lb) (unloaded) 11.5 kg (25 lb) (loaded)
Length	1,270 mm (50.0 in)
Barrel length	604 mm (23.8 in)
Cartridge	7.62×54mmR
Caliber	7.62 mm
Action	Gas-operated, flapper locking
Rate of fire	550 rpm
Muzzle velocity	840 m/s (2,755 ft/s)
Effective firing range	800 m (874.9 yd)
Feed system	47-round pan magazine
Sights	Adjustable iron sights, front post and rear notch on a scaled tangent

The Degtyaryov machine gun (Russian: Пулемёт Дегтярёвa Пехотный, romanized: Pulemyot Degtyaryova Pekhotny literally: "Degtyaryov's infantry machine gun") or DP-27/DP-28 is a light machine gun firing the 7.62×54mmR cartridge that was primarily used by the Soviet Union, with service trials starting in 1927, followed by general deployment in 1928.^[8][9]

Besides being the standard Soviet infantry light machine gun (LMG) during World War II, with various modifications it was used in aircraft as a flexible defensive weapon, and it equipped almost all Soviet tanks in WWII as either a flexible bow machine gun or a co-axial machine gun controlled by the gunner. It was improved in 1943 producing the DPM, but it was replaced in 1946 with the RP-46 which improved on the basic DP design by converting it to use belt feed. The DP machine gun was supplemented in the 1950s by the more modern RPD machine gun and entirely replaced in Soviet service by the general purpose PK machine gun in the 1960s.^[10]