Israeli FN Rifles, how reliable in the desert???

[x westie]

The Israeli army used to be equiped with the FN rifle, i believe it was the metric pattern, as compared to the Commonwealth inch pattern, i am curious if the Israeli FN was made so as to stand up to the hard condition's of desert warfare, sand, dust ,i noticed that during the 6-day war of 1967 the Israeli FN rifle was front and center with the troops in any news clips or photo's of that war, but shortly after i noticed that the Israeli troops were carrying the Galil, was there a problem with the FN in the desert, and that is why they started using the Galil.

 

[Speckfire]

The Galil rifle is a phoenix, risen from the ashes; a result of lessons learned by Israeli desert fighters in the 1967 Six-Day War. Very much the progeny of my friend, Israel Galili, chief weapons designer for IMI (Israeli Military Industries), and Yaacov Lior, the Galil is a somewhat successful attempt at Candide's "best of all possible worlds."
Dissatisfied with the 7.62mm NATO FN FAL with which the Israeli Army was largely equipped, as it has always been a poor performer in high sand and dust environments, Galili went directly into the field to investigate the problem (see "Weapons Wizard Israel Galili," SOF, March '82). He was told by everyone that the Kalashnikov was the "tiger of the desert."

Here is the complete article http://remtek.com/arms/imi/galil/galil.htm

I think after that that the sandcuts were integrated on the L1A1 rifles

 

[sf]

The Israeli army is known to deploy different weapon systems within the force all the time. Galil, M16s, M14s, FNs, AKs & even Mausers in 7.62 at reg & reserve force levels. My guess is like many Western armies during the 70's & 80's, the Israeli began to adopt 5.56 as their standard battle rifle, so the army switched to M16s, Galil & began phasing out their FNs. A no. of Gulf state & Lebanese armies were also equipped with FNs. So FNs were obviously held in high regard in the Middle East desert region.

 

[tree mugger]

From what I understand, the Isrealis went to an M16 platform and away from the Galil due to the stipulations on American aid money. Equipment eligible for payment out of aid money has to have a certain amount of "American Content".

The Galil was completely made in Isreal, and therefore was not eligible.