Galil Rifle

The Galil is a family of Israeli-made automatic rifles, designed by Yisrael Galili and Yaakov Lior and first produced by the state-owned Israel Military Industries beginning in 1972, remaining in production and service, now through the privatized successor company Israel Weapon Industries, into the present day. Built around a gas-operated rotating-bolt action derived from the Soviet Kalashnikov system but reworked with a Western-style safety and sights, the Galil is chambered for the 5.56x45mm NATO or, in some variants, the larger 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge, fires at a rate of about 650 rounds per minute and reaches muzzle velocities of roughly 900 to 950 meters per second depending on variant, with different configurations built for standard infantry, automatic-rifle and short-carbine roles. Adopted as the standard infantry rifle of the Israel Defense Forces and later exported to and adopted by a number of other national militaries and law enforcement agencies around the world, the Galil became one of the most widely recognized Israeli-designed small arms.