Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1220268
SK GROUP SK Group is an Israeli holding of defense industry compa- nies. For our point of view, the most interesting was exhi- bition of Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) and Meprolights. IWI is a private-owned company born in 2005 from state- owned Israel Military Industries (IMI). Their flagships are Tavor and Galil assault rifle, Negev machine guns and Jer- icho pistols. The latest addition to IWI portfolio are Car- mel and Arad assault rifles. 5.56 NATO IWI Carmel assault rifle was officially unveiled during LAAD 2019 in Brazil. The MILIPOL 2019 was Euro- pean premiere. Carmel is an interesting mix of solutions known from IWI X95, Beretta ARX, FN Herstal SCAR and FB Radom MSBS. Rifle is well designed, its ergonomics are great and it is very portable. As in ARX, the lower and upper receivers are connected without pins. Carmel has short-stroke gas piston and its internal design is based on X95. Controls are fully ambidextrous and non-recipro- cating charging handle which might be easily installed on the either sides of the gun without any tools required. The gas regulator has three positions. Carmel has full-length top MIL-STD-1913 accessory rail for optics and three short rails on the handguard. These might be covered with polymer covers when not used. Adjustable, six-positions stock is folded to the right. Gun might be operated with stock folded. Rifles will be available for export markets with cold-ham- mered chrome-lined 10.5", 12", 14.5" and 16" barrels. All feature 1:7 RH twist and are quick-detachable. Guns are fed from STANAG magazines. Another new product is IWI Arad short-stroke piston ri- fle based on the AR-15 design but with slightly modified internals. These was done to remove wobbling between upper and lower receiver. This required to change the trig- ger group and the internals are not 100% compatible with legacy AR's. Arad has a two-stage gas regulator. www.fragoutmag.com