Designated Marksmen are those soldiers who have to fire rapidly and accurately at enemy targets 250-500 meters away. The Designated Marksman Rifle is the weapon used by the designated marksman, which is mostly a semi-automatic rifle. The Designated Marksman should not be confused with a sniper as the sniper shoots at targets from the range of 500 meters up to or more than 2000 meters whereas a DM has to engage targets only up to 500 meters. Also, the type of weapon differs. Moreover, a designated marksman is a part of infantry platoon whereas a sniper mostly works alone.
A sniper always acquires a fixed strategic position and camouflage itself whereas, the DM tactically moves with its platoon. Thus, due to these differences of a DM from the others, it requires a rifle which has to be effective in terms of accuracy and terminal ballistics for ranges which are over those of an ordinary assault rifle or battle rifle, but also doesn’t requires the extended range of a dedicated sniper rifle.
- Sights: All designated marksman rifles have an optical magnification system with higher magnification level than the standard rifle. Sometimes, it is the only difference between the designated marksman rifle and the standard rifle. Sniper rifles have even greater magnification power than the DMRs.
- Barrel: In some cases the designated marksman rifle have longer barrel than standard rifle. However, in some cases their barrel length is similar to the standard rifle as in M16 A4. In rare cases, the barrel length is shorter than the standard rifle as in MK 12 special purpose rifle. The SVD that is incorporated by the Indian army has a barrel length of 24 inches.
- Ammunition: Mostly, the designated marksman rifle shares the ammunition used by the standard rifle. However, they may be issued with standard ball ammunition.
- Action: Mostly, designated marksman rifles are semi-automatic rifles. However, IMI Tavor TAR-21 and IMI Galil, used in the Indian army are of rotating bolt type.
Designated Marksman Rifles used by Indian army are
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| SVD |
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| IMI Galil |
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| TAR 21 |
Modified version of the INSAS family weapons are also used as designated marksman rifles.
Other famous designated marksman rifles are:
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| PSL rifle |
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| AR 10 |
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| M 21 |
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| Saiga 308 |
The DMRs are very important as the DM provide tactical advantage over the enemy and also provide support and protection to their own infantry platoon.
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