IMI Galil

Galil
File:Galil micro tactical ak-thumb.jpg Galil Assault Rifle
Type	Assault rifle
Place of origin	Israel
Service history
In service	1974–
Used by	Colombia, Estonia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Tonga
Wars	Yom Kippur War, Lebanon War, Operation Restore Hope 2003- Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom/ISAF - Afghanistan
Production history
Manufacturer	Bernardelli, Israel Military Industries (IMI), Indumil
Variants	See Variants
Specifications
Mass	3.9 kg (8.6 lb) (empty)
Length	979 mm, 742 mm stock folded
Cartridge	5.56 x 45 mm NATO or 7.62 x 51 mm NATO
Action	Gas-operated, Rotating bolt
Rate of fire	650 rounds/min
Effective firing range	500 m
Feed system	35-round detachable box magazine

Galil redirects here. For information on the region of Israel by this name, see Galilee.

The Galil is one of the standard assault rifles used by the Israel Defense Forces. It was designed by Yisrael Galili, and bears his name. It is a variant on the AK-47 design, chambered for 5.56 mm NATO or 7.62mm NATO ammunition.

History

The Galil project began after the Six-Day War, and the design was selected by the Israel Defense Forces from two competing designs. The winner was based on the Finnish Rk 62 (itself a locally improved and further developed variant of the AK-47). The first rifles began to arrive in 1974, after the Yom Kippur War. The Galil was designed to be a domestically produced main battle rifle for the IDF, taking the best features of other rifles, such as the FN FAL, M16 and AK-47, and putting them into one rifle. That rifle could be adapted to any number of tasks. The result was the IMI Galil. The Galil was used by Israeli infantry during the Lebanon War in 1982; but towards the mid-1980s, it was determined to be less than optimal.

Problems

The Galil's main problem is weight; it is heavier than the M16A1, at around 3.9 kg (8.6 lb) empty vs the M16A1's 2.9 kg (6.4 lb), and therefore often considered to be a greater burden as a personal weapon for infantrymen, although its short length due to the folding stock made it very popular with the troops (Galil 840/614 mm vs M16A1 986 mm). The weapon never caught on among Israel's numerous special forces units, who used AK-47s for reliability and deniability if dropped or captured. Fighting infantry units therefore were reissued M16s (new or upgraded to improve reliability and reduce weight). The Galil SAR's compactness resulted in it remaining (until a staged phase out from 2004-2005 where it was replaced by a shortened version of the M-16) a personal weapon for soldiers in armour and artillery units since its compact size does not get in the way of tank and self-propelled gun crews while using their main, crew-served ordnance.

The Galil includes a folding stock, tritium illuminated night sights, a bipod that can be used to cut barbed wire, and even the unusual feature of an integrated bottle-opener to avoid damage to the rifle magazines through a previously common misuse of weapons to open beverage bottles by using the magazine orifice to twist the caps off.

Variants

Nowadays, there are a number of models used:

• Galil AR The main version
• Galil ARM Bipod version with carry handle.
• Galil SAR ("short") - no bipod or carry handle, shorter barrel.
• Galil SNR ("sniper") - bipod, subsonic munition.
• Galil MAR ("micro") - which retains the internal features with a completely new frame and even shorter barrel. It has been reported that this weapon is subject to severe overheating, becoming too hot to touch after sustained automatic fire. A redesigned version is now in service with Israeli special forces in undercover operations, small enough to conceal under a jacket, yet extremely powerful. A Galil MAR variant with a redesigned receiver and front sight is in widespread service with Israel's police.

Another version, the Galat'z, has a significantly longer barrel and fires heavier 7.62 × 51 mm ammunition and is intended to be used as a sniper rifle. The successor of the Galat'z is the SR-99. The South African R4, developed in 1982, is based on the Galil. This version was the base for some further variants, the R5, the R6 and a light machine gun

Users

Galil rifles were exported to various South American, African and Asian countries as well as to Estonia. It is also the standard rifle of the Tongan military. The Galil of today has evolved into a much more reliable battle rifle than it was during its initial inception. The durability and utilitarian nature of the design are perfect for the dry and sandy climate of the eastern Mediterranean. It is also used as by certain units of the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The Galil was used by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the latter years of the Namibian Independence war (1966 - 1989) and was locally referred to as the "R4" or the shorter version used by the paratroopers as the "R5".

In the Estonian Defence Forces, the Galil was the main infantry rifle from 1994 to 2001. Presently the rifle is used by the units deployed to international military operations, rapid reaction unit Scouts Battalion (ESTBAT) and by some reserve and Estonian Defence League units. The rifle is currently used by Estonian troops in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Israel gave to Indumil (Colombia's National Military Industry), in the year 2006, the license to be the only producer of the Galil rifle in the world.

The South-African variant of the Galil rifle, the R4 assault rifle, developed and manufactured since the 1980s by Lyttleton Engineering Works (now "Vektor", Land Systems Division of Denel) is still being made and offered for export. The R-4 has two shorter variants (the R5, counterpart of the SAR, and the R6, counterpart of the MAR). There also are three semiautomatic-only variants (namely called LM-4, LM-5 and LM-6).

In the late 1980s, the Italian arms manufacturing firm of Bernadelli introduced the VB-SR assault rifle, namely an Italian-made Galil SAR variant taking STANAG magazines to compete for the adoption trials launched by the Italian Armed Forces for a new service assault rifle. Other competitors were the Heckler & Koch G41, offered and manufactured under license by Franchi, and the 70/90 weapon system by Beretta, which was the ultimate winner of the trial while the G-41 saw adoption by the COMSUBIN (Italian commando frogmen). The VB-SR "Galil" was acquired in small quantities by the Italian Army, and deployed in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope, often seen equipped with undercarried M203 grenade launcher; but saw no other use past that. Other sales of the VB-SR were made to the NOCS (Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza), the special operations division of the Italian Police (Polizia di Stato). The VB-SR was a major commercial failure otherwise, and faded from production shortly thereafter.

The Croatian APS-95 assault rifle was also heavily borrowed from the Galil design, specifically from the South-African R4 assault rifle, which was smuggled in the zone by the numbers during the Balkans conflict of the 1990s.

The defense force of Trinidad and Tobago makes extensive use of the Galil .

See also

Assault rifles in IDF service

• FN FAL
• M16A1 (1973, Yom Kippur War)
• M16A2 (1990—present)
• CAR-15, M4 Carbine and M4A1 (1997—present)
• IMI Tavor TAR-21 (starting to deploy in 2004)

External links

• Israel Weapon Industries (I.W.I.): Galil
• Buddy Hinton Collection / Galil
• Israel's deadly desert fighter
• Indumil Galil AR rifle Page

Manual

• Nazarian's Gun's Recognition Guide (MANUAL) Galil ARM Manual (.pdf)