Indian paras get seasoned on the Tavor

A team from Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) has just finished training India's Special Forces (Para) in the use of the Tavor TAR-21 5.56mm assault rifle. About 3,000 rifles were supplied to the Paras about six months ago to replace the American M-16A2s that they previously used. (That's a photograph of me holding the Tavor at at the IWI stall at Def Expo). Obviously the company is now trying to get the Army to pull up for the other Tavor 5.56 variants and replace the AK-47 used by the Rashtriya Rifles and the Insas used by regular Army infantry units -- that'll take some doing though. The company is also trying to get the Army to buy more Galil 7.62mm sniper rifles, micro Uzis and Jericho 9mm semi-automatics. But there's already talk of a patch of dirt on who represents IWI in India right now. More on that when I've got a fix on it.

Labels: , , , ,