IDF Are NOT Replacing the Tavor

Matthew Moss
by Matthew Moss
The IDF training with their issued Micro-Tavors

Last week a number of Israeli news outlets reported that the Israeli Defense Forces had made the decision to replace the Tavor bullpup rifle in service with the M4 Carbine. The IDF have now confirmed that this isn’t the case.

Tavor @ TFB:

The story was listed as breaking news on a series of major Israeli news outlets including Israel Hayom. It was reported that of the IDF’s five brigades the three which currently use the Tavor would replace their bullpup rifles with the M4 carbine. According to the reports the change would have impacted the regular army, while the reserve units would continue to use the Tavor.
The IDF, however, have now released a statement reaffirming their commitment to the Tavor (machine translated from Hebrew):

As part of the staff work on the optimal extraction of the weapons of the combat formation, it was decided these days to purchase additional weapons of the Tavor type.

The decision, the land arm notes, was made as part of the annual work plan, which weighs considerations of economic uniformity, adjustment to the designation of power, regular-reserve compliance, and so on.

Source: www.idf.il

For a decade now, the Tavor, a blue-and-white weapon, has been used by many infantry units and brigades in the IDF in a variety of sectors, and it will be distributed to fighters in the relevant units in the coming recruitment rounds as well. “We are very pleased with his abilities,” say in the land arm armament department, “he delivers very good performance, and proves himself.”

As stated, as part of the staff’s work for the preservation of weapons in the IDF, which was done recently, more Tavor will be purchased: “It is used by our combat formation very efficiently, and will continue to be used in the future

Coinciding with this, IWI, the Tavor’s manufacturer, announced that the IDF would be procuring further X95 Micro-Tavors:
IWI – Israel Weapon Industries – a member of the SK GROUP (founded by Mr. Samy Katsav), and a worldwide leader in the production of combat-proven small arms for governments, armies, and law enforcement agencies around the world is proud by the additional procurement of the Micro-TAVOR assault rifle by the IDF, to be in service by infantry units.
The decision was made as part of the IDF’s complete annual plan, taking under consideration significant parameters such as adaption to the forces’ missions in the modern battlefield, compliance between acting duty forces and reserve and more.
Designed for militaries, law Enforcement agencies, and special forces, the Micro-TAVOR (X95) was developed in close cooperation with elite units of the IDF, and was tailored to their specific requirements. Incorporating advanced technology enabling the conversion between calibers within minutes, special ops can use the same weapon platform for a wide array of scenarios, for mission success.
With an outstanding effective range of more than 500 meters, the Micro-TAVOR was created to deal with modern terror threats, as well as urban and open area combat – all in one mission. Exceptionally reliable in even the harshest weather conditions, the Micro-TAVOR complies with the most stringent NATO standards for small arms, including environmental standards. Combat-proven by many police and armed forces around the world, it is the standard Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rifle.
According to Ronen Hamudot, Exe. VP Marketing and sales: ” The TAVOR family has been in use by various units of the IDF for the past 15 years. This announcement by the IDF for further procurement is yet another evidence for the TAVOR’s high performance and reliability in the field”.
The Micro-TAVOR is a designed by users’ platform. IWI’s engineers are still serving as reserve in the IDF, hence like all IWI’s products, the Micro-TAVOR was designed and developed according to their own experience in the field. We are very proud of this ongoing long-term cooperation with the IDF, and the Micro-TAVOR being once again the weapon of choice.
Hamudot adds, “IWI works closely with its worldwide customer base, providing solutions that are designed to meet their specific needs.” He goes on to say, “The Micro-TAVOR is one of the most popular weapons of its category in the world – a success based on its exceptional effectiveness and reliability. We continue to develop a range of new configurations and applications in order to ensure its effectiveness in the widest possible range of situations and field requirements.”
Matthew Moss
Matthew Moss

Managing Editor: TheFirearmBlog.com & Overt Defense.com. Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. Matt is also runs The Armourer's Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms. Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news. Reach Matt at: matt@thefirearmblog.com

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  • Rijoenpial Rijoenpial on Sep 12, 2021

    Whoever broke these 'news' is completely ignorant with regards to the impact of sand on the DI M4 versus piston Tavor, something the Israeli testing would easily and quickly discern... The Tavor and the recent Carmel were built for those desert conditions, are piston systems, far more reliable, ergonomic and with the ability to maximise the potential of the 5.56 with longer barrels but also very good ergonomically, better than the M4, for CQB... Bullpups are MADE for CQB and for ergonomics, for carrying in vehicles, for deploying and with training, are in fact better than the M4 in every aspect that matters to the soldier... Of course, if you trained all your life with an AR-15 or AR-10 weapon, you will think the bullpup is alien... But if you trained all your life with the bullpup, you will think the same thing about the M4... So, why would a country with one of the best arms manufacturerer, the IWI, buy an inferior US gun for desert and CQB warfare...? Hell, even the Marines circumvented the procurement programs to get the piston HK416 in their inventory to replace the M4... if THAT is not a declaration of M4's obsolescence, I don't know what is...

  • Micky Shoham Micky Shoham on Sep 14, 2021

    The IDF can say whatever they want, the fact of the matter is this:

    No serious unit with in the IDF, let alone the elite ones, and neither Israeli police, border patrol, Shabak (FBI) will ever touch a Tavor let alone use it, they all tried, they all stayed with the much superior M4 as do all elite forces in the entire Western world

    The Tavor will be kicked out of the IDF once the ARAD is ready in large amounts - not a fact, but a well thought observation

    My res' unit was switched to Tavor, we all hate it and take the M4 any day

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