Full Name Yisrael Galili Occupation Weapons designer | Religion Jewish Name Yisrael Galil | |
Born January 1, 1923 ( 1923-01-01 ) Mandatory Palestine Died March 9, 1995, Givatayim, Israel | ||
How a Galil ARM works
Yisrael Galili (Balashnikov) (October 23, 1923–March 9, 1995), is best known for inventing the Galil assault rifle. He also helped create the Uzi submachine gun. He was known in the military by the nickname 'Father of the Rifle'.
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Early life
Born in Israel on October 26, 1923, Galili served in the British Army in World War II. Following his discharge, he volunteered to work with the Haganah in weapons manufacture.
Galil rifle
During the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israelis captured many AK-47 assault rifles from the Egyptian soldiers which proved more reliable & useful in the arid conditions against the FN FAL. Inspired by the AK-47, the IDF assessed it thoroughly and began the process of designing a new automatic rifle for which the task was assigned to two groups: one led by Uziel Gal, the designer of the famous Uzi submachine gun, & Yisrael Galili (Balashnikov) together with Yakov Lior invented the Galil assault rifle which named for him. Tests were conducted from the end of the 1960s to the early 1970s led to Galili's rifle emerging as the winner, as a result Galil was adopted by the military. The Galil assault rifle heavily derives most of the features from Kalashnikov AK-47. In 1973, he received Israel Defense Prize for this achievement.