Israel's army phases out country's iconic Uzi submachine gun|
AP Photos NY197-8|
|By JASON KEYSER|
|Associated Press Writer|
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's military is phasing out the legendary Uzi
submachine gun, calling it antiquated and replacing it with more
sophisticated, electronics-outfitted weaponry, an army spokesman said
Wednesday.
But the Uzi, a national icon and the country's most famous
contribution to the arms industry, will still be produced and
exported, to the presumable delight of drug dealers, gang members,
Secret Service agents and Hollywood action stars alike.
Israel's military took the simply constructed, half-century-old
weapon out of front line units two decades ago, but continued to
issue it to some elite units and soldiers carrying heavy gear who
needed a light weapon for self-defense.
Now the army says it will dump it altogether.
As of this week, ''we're no longer training soldiers on the Uzi,''
said army spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal. ''Basically, it's
antiquated,'' he said of the 9-mm weapon.
State-owned Israel Military Industries has made over 1.5 million
Uzis and will continue manufacturing the weapon, which has earned
hundreds of millions of dollars from sales the world over, including
in the United States, Latin America and Africa.
Illegal arms sales have also put the weapon into the hands of
Colombian drug lords.
In Israel, the weapon's smaller models are still popular with
security guards who favor portability over accuracy. Many private
security companies use the original, larger model because it's cheap.
It's also still a mainstay with some of the world's police forces
and security services guarding VIPs, said Yiftah Shapir of the Jaffee
Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.
The Uzi, while still used by the U.S. Secret Service, is also
beloved of gangs in the United States because of its reputation as
''a macho weapon,'' said gun expert Tim Brown of Globalsecurity.org.
But he added the Uzi ''is not a very good gun - it's very
inefficient, inaccurate. ... It's mostly used in bad Hollywood action
movies.''
In 1984's ''The Terminator,'' for example, a gun shop owner commends
Arnold Schwarzenegger's cyborg for ordering the ''Uzi nine
millimeter'' before his murderous rampage.
Whatever its qualities as a weapon, the Uzi arouses nostalgia and
pride in Israel, where it was developed around the same time as the
country's war-rattled birth in 1948.
''It was the first Israeli weapon after 2,000 years of diaspora,''
Shapir said. Recalling his own days in the military in the late
1960s, he added, ''I can still disassemble an Uzi with my eyes
closed, hands tied behind my back, even if you wake me in the middle
of the night.''
Elite Israeli fighting units found it useful because of its
resistance to mud and water, giving the weapon a further mystique -
and marketing cachet.
The Uzi again made headlines when the weapon's creator, Uzi Gal, 79,
died in September 2002.
At 15, Gal developed a bow that could automatically fire arrows, and
later he secretly made weapons in a metal workshop for the Jewish
underground. When the first Arab-Israeli war erupted in 1948, he was
asked to develop a submachine gun for Israel's army, which faced
weapons embargoes and had little cash.
The Uzi first found its way into soldiers' hands in 1954, and it
swiftly proved its deadly effectiveness two years later in the Sinai
campaign against Egypt.
Among various models are Uzi Carbine, with a long barrel, the
Micro-Uzi, which is smaller, and the Uzi Pistol, a semiautomatic
weapon slightly larger than a regular handgun and weighing less than
4 pounds.
The Uzi - whose modified single-shot pistol version can be bought
for some $500 in the United States - is one of the most copied
weapons in the world, with knockoffs produced in China and several
eastern European countries, according to Israeli media reports.
Through its long years of service in the Israeli military, soldiers
revered it for its hardiness and ease of operation - but at the same
time lamented its limited range and disturbing tendency to fire
itself when dropped or struck. Its short barrel gave it an accurate
range of just 50 yards.
The weapon was taken out of use by front line units in Israel in the
early 1980s. It was replaced with standard and short versions of the
American-made M-16, which can accurately hit a target at 1,000 yards.
This year, Israel announced the development of the Tavor, a new,
compact assault rifle to be issued to soldiers starting in January.
The rifle comes in three designs: a basic assault rifle, a
sharp-shooting model and a shorter version for commandos and
paratroopers that is useful in urban warfare.
The Tavor, like the Uzi, is small enough to be useful in street
combat, but it can also be outfitted with high-tech electronics, such
as sights that can provide real-time data on targets a soldier might
not be able to see with his own eyes.
The simple Uzi, by comparison, is greatly outdated, Shapir said.
''Just a few pieces of metal, one spring, and that's it.''
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