This is a Google translation from an article from Israeli newspaper, so pardon the grammar. The article is from an hour ago.
The weapon revolution for IDF soldiers: Israeli AR instead of the M4 and Tavor
In a quick move during the war, the Procurement Administration at the Ministry of Defense bought about 20,000 M-16 based M4 rifles and 3,000 Tavor rifles, but prepared for the big move in the field units: a uniform Israeli weapon, which will be similar to the M4. The Givati and Golani fighters may say goodbye to Tavor this year.
As part of the lessons learned from the war in Gaza, the IDF is planning an Israeli weapons revolution that may change the battlefield for the infantry, armor, engineering and artillery soldiers. The army intends to go back and base itself on unified Israeli weapons in the field of assault rifles for the field units, mainly for the infantry soldiers. To this end, the procurement administration at the Ministry of Defense is launching a huge tender for tens of thousands of rifles between three local weapon manufacturers: "Silver Shadow" which manufactures the Gilboa rifle, MZ weapons of the "Amatan" company, and the Arad rifle of IWI.
All three are from the AR family of weapons.
Two of these companies will win a tender that will end in the long-term arming of the IDF with Israeli weapons, which are based on the American M4 and common in the IDF, as an advanced version of the M16 manufactured by the Colt company. The new weapons will be mounted with various adapters for aiming projection and range-increasing optical sights for snipers. In this way, the IDF will phase out the Israeli Tavor rifles that were intended about two decades ago to be the replacements for the American rifles, but were not distributed beyond three infantry brigades: Givati, Golani and Nahal.
As an interim step before the introduction of Israeli weapons, the Tavors will be transferred to non-infantry field units (armor, artillery and possibly also for engineering. In the meantime, due to the wear and tear of the existing weapons during the war, the procurement administration at the Ministry of Defense ordered about 20 thousand American M4 rifles and another 3,000 Tavor rifles.
The Ministry of Defense emphasizes that the two Israeli manufacturers who win the tender will have to meet strict conditions even though their weapons have already been successfully sold to security units in Israel, which belong to the police and Shin Bet, and to foreign armies.
"The Tavor was based on a mechanism of a rear assembly, which has become less common in Western armies, less suitable for operating some of the restraints, and it has relative disadvantages in fighting in closed areas, as we saw in the fighting in Gaza," a senior IDF officer who leads the
intensification project. "We are after in-depth research on the subject and comparative experiments that we conducted with fighters from the Givati, Kafir brigades and paratroopers, to make sure it's not just a gut feeling of commanders. We realized in the tests we did at the ranges that we had to switch to a unified weapon version because significant gaps have arisen on the subject, mainly in the reserve battalions that are fed from different units, and from soldiers that some of them used Tavor and others M4".
The ambition to be based on Israeli assault rifles will be the third in recent decades, after the first two - the Galilee rifles
In the 1970s and 1980s, and the Tavors from the beginning of the 2000s, they did not succeed fully and for a long time. "The move will allow high maintenance flexibility, will prevent conversions for fighters who will move from regular to reserve, will provide a uniform spare parts market and will save logistical costs over the years," added the officer, "the ambition is that the new M4s we received from the U.S. will be distributed this year to the Givati and Golani fighters, in order to let them get to know and start using the same weapon technology that will later be Israeli-made for them as well."
According to him, the rate of equipping will be affected by the operational schedule and the combat constraints of the brigades in the coming year: "The Israeli weapons will be
very similar to the American M4, also in terms of shooting ranges and the weight of the rifle. In my estimation, we will complete the move by mid-2025."
The weapon revolution for IDF soldiers: Israeli AR instead of the M4 and Tavor
In a quick move during the war, the Procurement Administration at the Ministry of Defense bought about 20,000 M-16 based M4 rifles and 3,000 Tavor rifles, but prepared for the big move in the field units: a uniform Israeli weapon, which will be similar to the M4. The Givati and Golani fighters may say goodbye to Tavor this year.
As part of the lessons learned from the war in Gaza, the IDF is planning an Israeli weapons revolution that may change the battlefield for the infantry, armor, engineering and artillery soldiers. The army intends to go back and base itself on unified Israeli weapons in the field of assault rifles for the field units, mainly for the infantry soldiers. To this end, the procurement administration at the Ministry of Defense is launching a huge tender for tens of thousands of rifles between three local weapon manufacturers: "Silver Shadow" which manufactures the Gilboa rifle, MZ weapons of the "Amatan" company, and the Arad rifle of IWI.
All three are from the AR family of weapons.
Two of these companies will win a tender that will end in the long-term arming of the IDF with Israeli weapons, which are based on the American M4 and common in the IDF, as an advanced version of the M16 manufactured by the Colt company. The new weapons will be mounted with various adapters for aiming projection and range-increasing optical sights for snipers. In this way, the IDF will phase out the Israeli Tavor rifles that were intended about two decades ago to be the replacements for the American rifles, but were not distributed beyond three infantry brigades: Givati, Golani and Nahal.
As an interim step before the introduction of Israeli weapons, the Tavors will be transferred to non-infantry field units (armor, artillery and possibly also for engineering. In the meantime, due to the wear and tear of the existing weapons during the war, the procurement administration at the Ministry of Defense ordered about 20 thousand American M4 rifles and another 3,000 Tavor rifles.
The Ministry of Defense emphasizes that the two Israeli manufacturers who win the tender will have to meet strict conditions even though their weapons have already been successfully sold to security units in Israel, which belong to the police and Shin Bet, and to foreign armies.
"The Tavor was based on a mechanism of a rear assembly, which has become less common in Western armies, less suitable for operating some of the restraints, and it has relative disadvantages in fighting in closed areas, as we saw in the fighting in Gaza," a senior IDF officer who leads the
intensification project. "We are after in-depth research on the subject and comparative experiments that we conducted with fighters from the Givati, Kafir brigades and paratroopers, to make sure it's not just a gut feeling of commanders. We realized in the tests we did at the ranges that we had to switch to a unified weapon version because significant gaps have arisen on the subject, mainly in the reserve battalions that are fed from different units, and from soldiers that some of them used Tavor and others M4".
The ambition to be based on Israeli assault rifles will be the third in recent decades, after the first two - the Galilee rifles
In the 1970s and 1980s, and the Tavors from the beginning of the 2000s, they did not succeed fully and for a long time. "The move will allow high maintenance flexibility, will prevent conversions for fighters who will move from regular to reserve, will provide a uniform spare parts market and will save logistical costs over the years," added the officer, "the ambition is that the new M4s we received from the U.S. will be distributed this year to the Givati and Golani fighters, in order to let them get to know and start using the same weapon technology that will later be Israeli-made for them as well."
According to him, the rate of equipping will be affected by the operational schedule and the combat constraints of the brigades in the coming year: "The Israeli weapons will be
very similar to the American M4, also in terms of shooting ranges and the weight of the rifle. In my estimation, we will complete the move by mid-2025."
