IMI Galil

{{Infobox weapon|
|name=Galil
|image=Galil.jpg
|caption=  An IMI Galil
|origin=
|type=Assault rifle

|is_ranged=yes

|service= 1972–present 
|used_by=See Users
|wars=Lebanon Conflict, War in Somalia (1992–1993), South African Border War, Operation Enduring Freedom/ISAF – Afghanistan, Iraq War, Insurgency in the Philippines, Guatemalan insurgency,Bosnian War, Colombian Armed Conflict

|designer=Yisrael Galili, Yaacov Lior
|design_date=
|manufacturer=Israel Military Industries (IMI), Bernardelli, Indumil, Ka Pa Sa State Factories
|production_date=
|number=
|variants=

|weight=
|length=
|part_length=

|cartridge= 5.56x45mm NATO  7.62x51mm NATO 
|action=Gas-operated, rotating bolt
|rate=630–750 rounds/min
|velocity=
|max_range=
|feed=5.56mm: 35, 50, 65-round removable box magazine 7.62mm: 25-round box magazine
|sights=
}}

The Galil is a family of Israeli small arms. They were designed by Yisrael Galil and Yaacov Lior in the late 1960s. They were made by Israel Military Industries Ltd (now Israel Weapon Industries Ltd) of Ramat HaSharon.

History
The Galil's design is supposed to make it work well in warm weather. It was designed from the Finnish RK 62. The RK 62 itself was designed from the Soviet AK-47 assault rifle. It was chosen as the winner of a competition for the Israel Defense Forces. This competition included many other designs. Some of these were the M16A1, Stoner 63, AK-47 and HK33. The Galil was officially brought into service in 1972. It replaced the FN FAL.

Design

Features

The Galil is fired by a small hammer. It has a trigger mechanism which was designed from the trigger used in the American M1 Garand. The rifle's fire has three positions: "R" (First letter of "repeating", which is a British word for semi-automatic fire); the middle position, "A", gives fully automatic fire; and pushing the lever fully forward turns on the safety so that the weapon can not be fired.

The weapon is made with a plastic hand guard and pistol grip. The rifle can be used with a sound suppressor. A suppressor makes the weapon quieter. The weapon has a bottle opener and wire cutter built into the bipod. The bottle opener was built in to stop damage to magazines. This was because the magazines were being used to open bottles. Wire cutters were built in to reduce the time that IDF troops took to cut down wire fences. This is because there are many wire fences in rural areas of Israel.

Barrel
The barrel has a flash suppressor. It can be used to launch rifle grenades or attach a bayonet. It is possible to attach the M7 bayonet to the Galil.

Feeding
The Galil gets its ammunition from a curved, steel box magazine. It can hold 35 rounds. There is a special colour-coded 12-round magazine which is used for blanks. The magazine is put into the gun in a similar way to the AK group. A special attachment can allow the Galil to use STANAG magazines.

Types of Galil

AR
The AR is the normal rifle version. It has a plastic handguard. The handguard can take a lot of damage before breaking.  The stock of the AR can fold (to the right side).

SAR
The SAR carbine type of the AR has a shorter barrel (332 mm, 13.07in). Because the barrel is shorter, the mechanisms inside the barrel are also smaller.

ARM
The ARM version is a light machine gun. It has a handle to carry the weapon, a bipod which folds and a larger handguard. The handguard is made from wood. The wooden handguard stays cool when the weapon is being fired fully automatically. The bipod can be used as a wire cutter. The back of the handguard can be used to open bottles. This was put in to stop soldiers opening bottles with the magazines, as this damaged them.

MAR
MAR stands for Micro Galil. It is a smaller version of the SAR. It weighs 2.98 kg without a magazine. The MAR gets its ammunition from a 35-round magazine. Two of these can be attached to make reloading quicker. The MAR has the same rate of fire (630-750 rounds per minute) as other 5.56 mm Galil models. An optional magazine adapter inserted inside the magazine well allows the use of standard 20 and 30-round M16 magazines. The MAR has four settings: "S"—weapon can not fire, "A"—automatic fire, "B"—3-round burst, "R"—semi-automatic fire. The MAR can have many different sights attached to it. The MAR can also be given with plastic magazines (instead of steel magazines). These weigh 0.164 kg. They can also be given with more space around the trigger so that soldiers wearing gloves can fire it.

Other types

Some other types of Galil are:
 Magal: This is a version of the Galil MAR. It is for use with police forces. It fires .30 Carbine rounds.
 Golan: A civilian version with a new-production milled semi automatic receiver built in the United States with all other components original IMI Galil production parts.
 Galil ACE: The Galil ACE is a new group of Galils. They were designed by a Colombian company called Indumil. There are three versions of ACE: Micro, SAR and AR. It can have all its parts removed without using any tools.

Users

 
 
 
 : Standard issue rifle. Produced under license by Indumil. Also adopted the Galil ACE rifle by the middle of 2010, produced by Indumil.
 
 
 
 
 : Uses 5.56mm versions of the Galil AR, SAR, ARM and the 7.62mm Galil Sniper.
 : Uses GALATZ sniper and Micro-Galil assault rifles 
 : 3,000 ACE
 
 
 : Komando Pasukan Katak (Kopaska) tactical diver group and Komando Pasukan Khusus (Kopassus) special forces group.
 : Israel Defense Forces and Knesset Guard.
 
 : Secretaría de Seguridad Pública.
 
 
 
 
 : 5.56mm AR and ARM versions used by the Portuguese Army airborne infantry.
 
 : Standard assault rifle of the South African National Defence Force. Made under a license in a changed form as the R4 by Denel Land Systems.

References

More reading

Other websites

 Video of an IMI Galil being fired
 Israel Weapon Industries – manufacturer's page
 Operator's Manual
 Israeli-Weapons.com
 Galil 5.56 mm AR/ARM/SAR manual
 Buddy Hinton collection
 Galil rifle information 
 Modern Firearms 
 REMTEK
 Golani Sporter, Guns Magazine July 2007 

Assault rifles
5.56 mm firearms
Military of Israel
1969 establishments
7.62 mm rifles
Automatic rifles
Battle rifles
Light machine guns