IMI Tavor assault rifle has been selected as the future weapon for Israel Defense Forces infantry units. For several years the IDF evaluated the Tavor against the M-16 M4. The two weapons recently completed extensive field evaluations with special forces as well elite infantry units, such as the Givati Brigade. Following the conclusion of these tests, the IDF made its decision. The evaluations were very positive and overall, Tavor proved to be significantly more accurate and reliable compared to the M4, and became the favorable sidearm by the majority of the infantrymen participated in the tests. The weapon proved to be more comfortable to operate, and more accurate in instinctive fire, as the natural carrying position – an inherent advantage of the rear center of gravity, derived by the compact bull-pup design.
Due to budget constraints and large quantities of M-16 and M-16A2 which are already in its inventory, the IDF is expected to order only thousands of rifles per year, however, according to IMI, the importance of the decision is the recognition in the quality and superiority of the new Israeli weapon, to promote export sales. The IDF selected Tavor with an optical reflection sight, the initial batch will be equipped with the ITL battery powered MARS, but follow-on batches could be equipped with either the passive, non-powered Mepro-21 Rexfelx sight, produced by Meprolight or the ITL MARS. IMI believes that Tavor will soon take its place as a leading brand in the world market, similar to the ubiquitous Uzi, IMI produced in the 1950s. India became the second country to order Tavor. The new assault rifle will equip paratroops and special forces of the Indian Army. The Indian version will be equipped with the ITL MARS optical reflection sight. On September 2004 Georgia became the third country to select the Tavor, which will be used by special operations units.
