The U.S. Military learned a long time ago, if you want to know how a weapon system will preform in the "real world," give it to the Israeli's. Unlike the U.S., the Israeli government is not squeamish about conflict. They will not use a substandard weapon for long as they do not have the manpower to over come crappy weapons.
It always struck me as off that the Israeli's went to the Galil in the 1970's. I mean, all their enemies were using Soviet weapons, typically AK's and they had little success defeating the Israeli military. So, why would the IDF decide to take a modified AK as their primary weapon? It seems the gun had typical AK reliability and not so typical AK accuracy. It was fairly accurate...not a target gun, but far better them the standard AK. But, the Galil was expensive to make.
What happened next is even more odd. They also adopted, in extremely large numbers, the M16 family of weapons. Sure, the M16 is more accurate then an AK, but it's far less reliable and requires far more maintenance. The M16 became the standard weapon of the IDF. We hear stories now of U.S. troops in Iraq complaining about the sand and how much cleaning the M16 needs to function properly. The Israeli's live in that kind of desert. I guess when something free or very low priced is offered, you make the best of it.
Now, the IDF has started issuing it's newest weapon: The Tavor. Well, not really newest, as the gun has been in the design and testing stages since 1991. Finally, this weapon is out of the testing stage and is being issued to troops as fast as they can be made.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/150378
The Tavor is not a revolutionary design. It is a combination of the best parts of a lot of different gun designs. It has a polymer bullpup stock, with an integral mount for an optical sight. It fires the NATO standard 5.56 round. It is also modular, allowing swapping of barrels and stocks with ease. You can have the same gun as a sniper model, light machine gun, or assault rifle with some quick changes.
According to World Guns (http://world.guns.ru/assault/as30-e.htm):
TAR-21 utilizes a now-common long piston stroke, rotating bolt action, with the gas piston rigidly attached to the bolt carrier. Gas cylinder is located above the barrel and is completely enclosed by the gun housing. The rotating bolt is similar to one found in the M16 rifle and has seven lugs. The ejection ports are made on both sides of the weapon, and the right or the left side ejection can be selected by installing the bolt with the ejector mounted on the right or on the left, respectively. The bolt carrier rides on the single guide rod, with the return spring unit located above it, behind and inside the hollow gas piston rod. The charging handle is located at the front left side of the gun and does not reciprocate when gun is fired. The charging handle slots are cut on the both sides of the gun housing, so it can be installed on either side of the weapon, as required. The trigger unit is more or less conventional, with the ambidextrous fire mode selector / safety switch located above the pistol grip. The TAR-21 has no separate receiver. Instead, all parts are mounted within the high impact-resistant plastic housing, reinforced with steel inserts where appropriate. The access to all the internal parts is controlled by the hinged buttplate, which can be swung down for internal inspection and disassembly.
The gun also uses M16 magazines, which makes sense, since Israel has millions of them already in stock. Like I said, nothing new or creative, just a molding together of good features from other weapon systems.
