The Indian Navy marine commandos (MARCOS) will be armed with Israeli-made Tavor assault rifles and Galil sniper rifles to enhance their operational capability.

A defence ministry official said a consignment of over 500 TAR-21 Tavor assault rifles worth Rs150m ($3.3m) and another 30 Galil sniper rifles worth Rs20m ($437,847) was delivered to MARCOS.

“The Israeli team will be here to jointly inspect the delivered weapons and assemble them. MARCOS will begin using these rifles and start training on them from this month,” the official said.

The Tavor is a 5.56mm-calibre weapon of Nato specifications while the Galil is a 7.62mm sniper weapon.

The two weapons will be a standard weapon for the force, and are already in use with the Indian Army’s special forces and the Indian Air Force’s Garud special forces units.

MARCOS, a force trained for special operations, is currently using the indigenous INSAS rifles and Russian Kalashnikov variants, according to IANS.

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