The IDF has been carefully analyzing the enormous amount of data collected from the soldiers’ experiences fighting in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, the Mako website reports.
One of the most important lessons learned from the troops’ combat in the enclave was related to the weight of the load ground soldiers carried with them into battle.
Soldiers carry a rocket launcher weighing some 10 kilograms, for example; the Technological Division of the IDF Ground Arm worked together with the security industry to reduce that weight to seven kilos instead.
Negev machine guns, Tavor and M-16 rifles use 5.56 mm caliber ammunition. Each bullet weighs 12 grams; but with new technology, those bullets will weigh 30 percent less. MAG machine guns may be phased out and the lighter Negev machine guns may replace them. Or they may receive lighter ammunition.