Israel Ministry of Defense Orders More IWI X95 Micro Tavors for IDF

by Matthew Moss

Published: July 19th, 2023

Israel Ministry of Defense Orders More IWI X95 Micro Tavors for IDF

January 14, 2013 Soldiers of the Golani Brigade conduct an exercise in the snowy Mount Hermon. As the brigade of the northern command, Golani is trained in the most extreme conditions. (Shay Wagner, IDF)

Israel’s Ministry of Defense has contracted with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) for an unspecified number of X95 bullpup rifles. The announcement from IWI explains that the contract will see ‘additional thousands’ of Micro Tavors supplied for the Israeli Defense Force’s infantry brigades.

IWI @ TFB:

Here’s IWI’s announcement in full:

Israel Weapon Industries – a member of the SK Group (founded by Mr. Samy Katsav), and a global leader in the production of combat-proven small arms for military, police, law enforcement agencies, and governmental entities around the world, will supply additional thousands of Micro-TAVOR (X95) assault rifles for IDF infantry brigades under a new contract.
The contract was signed with the Israel Ministry of Defense’s Department of Production and Procurement – Ground Weapons Division.
The Micro-TAVOR rifle has been in IDF active duty and reserves service since 2006. Its bullpup configuration platform creates an ergonomic and short firearm with a long barrel, giving it superior ballistics compared to other platforms.
The current order is for the 5.56x45mm caliber Micro-TAVOR with a 380mm and 419mm – barrel length. The firearm is equipped with M-1913 picatinny rails enabling the mounting of essential accessories such as sights, lights, and visual and IR illuminators necessary for modern warfare.
This order joins previous IWI contracts for the IDF, such as the Negev LMG (light machine gun) and the 40mm grenade launcher that can be mounted on to the Micro-TAVOR rifle.
Ronen Hamudot, Executive VP Marketing and Sales of the SK Group said: “We are proud of the IDF’s decision to, once again, choose the small arms advanced solutions manufactured by IWI. This is a fruitful cooperation between the company and the IDF that has been in place for many years, and which reflects the Ministry of Defense’s confidence in SK Group’s solutions in the light weapons sector.
The Micro- TAVOR advanced design and technology was developed in collaboration with the elite units of Israel Defense Forces (IDF). During its development every technological and ergonomic aspect was taken into consideration. We are proud to say that today it is the standard IDF assault rifle”.

#Tavor #Idf #Iwi #X95 #MicroTavor

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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11 of 98 comments

Martin Grnsdal on Jul 20, 2023

The problem with bullpups is not really a problem. Less advanced units will most often end up in an ambush/knife attack situation, where one mag is usually more than enough to stop the combat. Better trained units, those that engage in more advanced combat situations, will adapt to any weapon issued to them and overcome awkward mag changes.
Both types of units will all of the time benefit from a shorter and more handy rifle.

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- Iksnilol on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @Martin Grønsdal I think that the mag change situation is a gamer thing. You're not gonna be swapping mags out of cover.
  
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- Martin Grnsdal on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @iksnilol Unless malfunction or mag empty is a very dynamic situation.
  
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- Iksnilol on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @Martin Grønsdal Then you got bad equipment/didn't take care of it.
  And you'd still go for cover to fix that. You don't stand out in the open. Cover is everything
  
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- Martin Grnsdal on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @iksnilol Have you served in the military? I know you haven't, so that's a rhetoric question. Any gear can and will malfunction, and it's not due to poor quality, nor bad soldiering. Sand, water, ice, etc. will make things work worse or stop working altogether. Now add an ambush to that, where you can't hide to change mags, as you are advancing or retreating, and you have a nice f... up situation. No plan survives the first bullet fired, not even the plan to always change mags behind cover.
  I mean look, you can have an Israeli soldier straight out from barracks. Everything oiled and clean, and some Arab nutcase may attack and rip the mag out of the soldiers rifle. He'd better reload then 😉
  
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- Iksnilol on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @Martin Grønsdal I'd argue that makes the bullpup superior in your situation. If you sneeze in the direction of an AR the mag is gonna eject.
  That and ripping the mag out of a Tavor is much harder
  
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- Martin Grnsdal on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @iksnilol I've only fired the Tavor on 3-4 occasions so I don't know how well the mag is embedded there. But that's not an argument for or against bullpups but better magwells.
  
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- Iksnilol on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @Martin Grønsdal Better magwell would mean slower reloads. Americans have flip flopped on this for a while. Exposed mag button results in fenced mag release, fenced mag release rrsults in sloeer reloads which results in oversized mag release
  
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- Int19h on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @iksnilol This is mostly the tacticool crowd doing microoptimizations. The standard arrangement as seen on e.g. M4 works fine for all practical purposes when it comes to speed and ergos. The real downside of this setup isn't inadvertent mag dumps but rather the fact that it is inherently more susceptible to dirt and mud contamination and water freezing inside blocking the mag than AK-style rock-and-lock.
  
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- VwVwwVwv on Jul 22, 2023
  
  @Martin Grønsdal you don't use automatic fire a lot in the IDF, you have no brrrr, only bang bang bang, ok, if you Brrrr to much you get collateral damage
  and the whole world and israels left would cry bu bu.... ok?
  
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Eightysix on Jul 21, 2023

That lunch lady cap has to interfere with peripheral vision at times.

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Israel Ministry of Defense Orders More IWI X95 Micro Tavors for IDF

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