IMI Negev
The general purpose Negev machine gun was introduced in 1990 for Israeli Army use.
By Jerry Potts, 173rd Airborne (RET)
The Negev is an Israeli 5.56mm light machine gun, developed by Israel Military Industries Ltd (now Israel Weapon Industry), as a replacement for the 5.56mm Galil light machine gun which had a propensity to overheat. This newer Israeli firearm was introduced in 1990 and delivered into service with the Israel Defense Forces thereafter.
The Negev is an automatic gas-operated gun that uses the gases from the barrel to cycle a short-stroke gas-operating piston system under the barrel and a locking bolt mechanism. The Negev has a quick-change chrome-lined barrel with a flash suppressor and a fixed carry handle used to transport the weapon and doubles as a hand hold when changing an overheated barrel. Modification was needed to launch rifle grenades so a multifunction muzzle device was developed.
The iron sights are the closed-type and consist of an adjustable front post for both elevation and windage. A rear aperture sight has an adjusting elevation drum easy to turn with two fingers for range settings from 300 to 1,000 meters. During night operation the weapon is equipped with Betalight gaseous tritium illuminated vials. One can be installed in the front sight and an additional two are placed on a notch sight under the standard aperture sight. The barrel can also be optionally fitted with mounting hardware allowing the Negev to field a laser pointer or reflex sight.
The machine gun has a metal right side folding side stock and a removable bipod that is connected to the forward hand guard. IMI was asked by the Army personnel to make the weapon vehicle friendly so the receiver has hooks to secure the gun to mounts in vehicles.
The Negev uses the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge and is optimized for the SS109 bullet. Field maintenance involves stripping the weapon down to six main groups: the barrel, stock, bolt carrier, bolt, bipod and return mechanism. All parts, including the quick-change barrels, are fully interchangeable.
In addition to the 200-round metal-link belt, the NEGEV light machine gun can fire from a 150-round fabric container (clipping to into the magazine well), a 35-round box magazine from the Galil addault rifle, a 30-round STANAG magazine from the M-16 rifle (through use of an adapter) and a 12-blank cartridge magazine when launching rifle grenades.
History text ©2003-2009 www.MilitaryFactory.com • All Rights Reserved •
No Reproduction Without Permission • Corrections / Comments to MilitaryFactory at Gmail dot com
Last Updated: 11/10/2008
|
Operation:
