Israeli Army Ditching the M4

[EagleEyes]

So it seems the Israeli army is dumping the M4 and jumping on the “bullpup” design bandwagon, fielding a new Tavor-built TAR-21 assault rifle to its troops that looks more like the Austrian Steyr and British Enfield L85 rifle.

This is significant because the Israeli military is one of the only other modern armies in the world that has fielded the M4 as widely as the United States. It’s unclear whether the Israelis are changing their weapons because of the M4’s notorious jamming problems, or if they were just looking to update their assault rifle with integrated red-dot/laser sighting and shorten the rifle – which a bullpup design let’s you do because the barrel and receiver is essentially in the butt stock.

But checking out the video, it looks like a pretty good piece of gear to me.

[YOUTUBE]

Headshots at 300 yards with a bullpup? The shooter may have been a former sniper, but that’s still a tough shot to make standing up with such a short weapon.

(Gouge: WaZinn)

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

I believe the Tavor has also been purchased by India for its special forces.

It will be interesting to compare this with the Pak. Army selection for its next gen. rifle. (whenever that is finalized).

The Tavor was not equipped with the normal metal sight that requires closing one eye for shooting. Instead, the Tavor has an optical sight known as a "red dot." The soldier looking through the sight sees both his target and the red dot. When the red dot aligns with the target, the bullets fired will make exact hits.

The rifle can also be equipped with a dual-purpose sight: at the press of a button, the sight can be adjusted to a laser finder, so that the rifle can be fired from hip height, using the laser to illuminate the target.

The Tavor is also designed for night fighting. Night goggles can be taken from the soldier's helmet and attached to the rifle, making the red dot system effective also at night. The entire rifle was designed to be user-friendly.

The Tavor was designed to have its center of balance conveniently placed and can be adjusted in minutes for left-handed use.

All the metal parts in the rifle are specially treated to avoid rusting. To make the changeover to the new rifle easy, many parts of the Tavor are located identically to the M-16.

The only problem with the Tavor is its price - the M-16 rifles are purchased from the United States for several tens of dollars a piece, as part of US aid. The Tavor will cost several hundreds of dollars each.

Tavor

I wonder if the price advantage of the M-16 has been ignored in favor of a better rifle, or if acquisition will continue to remain limited to special forces,