WORLD EXCLUSIVE: IWI ARAD Hands-On Review
Dickson 09.05.19
The ARAD, the first piston-driven AR15 from Israel Weapon Industries
The ARAD, named after a city of the same name in the Southern District of Israel, is the all-new AR15 from IWI. Development of this rifle has been rumored for many years, there was even a close-up photo of an AR lower receiver with IWI logo engraved circulated online.
Answering to demands of the end users, they have been tasked to produce a high quality AR15 that will work under harsh conditions. This simply calls for a piston driven action which works nicely with suppressors as well as offering OTB (Over The Beach) capability that direct gas impingement design cannot provide.
There is no question that the ARAD, currently offered in select fire only, is mainly designed for export. This means IWI can compete in military and law enforcement procurement contracts all over the world of which many favor the AR platform. Many end users are aware of the rifle used by SEAL Team Six on Osama Bin Laden in Operation Neptune Spear, the Heckler & Koch HK416. It is deemed by many to be the best piston driven AR in the market. However, the German government imply export restrictions to Heckler & Koch from selling their products only to “green countries”, of which it needs be membership of Nato or “Nato-equivalent” which includes countries like Japan, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand as well has having sufficient scores in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index.
In addition, it’s often misunderstood that all military and police units in Israel use the X95. In fact, the YAMAM, Israeli’s most elite counter-terrorism unit, strictly uses AR15s.
Handling Impressions
The rifle feels very well built and solid in the hand. The handguard, upper and lower receivers have zero play unlike on many affordable AR15s. The barrel is cold hammer-forged and made in-house using GFM machines from Austria.
The upper receiver is monolithic which means the handguard and upper receiver is one piece and offers an uninterrupted picatinny rail at 12 o’clock for optics and lasers. It has M-Lok slots at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock for M-Lok accessories that are readily available in the market.
It features two adjustable gas settings, normal and suppressed. The gas settings can easily be changed by using a 5.56mm round fitted into the gas adjustment knob as it can get hot during use.
The rifle is completely ambidextrous, including the bolt lock/release lever right underneath the dust cover and above the magazine release on the right hand side. User of the HK416A5 will be very familiar with this setup.
Pistol grip features a more upright angle than the regular A2 grip which adds comfort when shooting with the stock retracted closer to body for more tactical or CQB (close-quarter combat) style shooting stance. The buttstock is GL-Core made by Fab Defense which features a slightly angled, rubberized buttpad with quick-detach mounting points on both sides.
It features a quick detach barrel that took the design out of Tavor/X95, using the barrel wrench the user can rotate the nut 180 degree to remove the barrel and switch out to calibers such as .300 Blackout. Right above the barrel nut there are quick-detach sling mounting points on both left and right sides.
Representative from IWI assured me that the rifle is built using the highest quality materials possible and it maintains an accuracy of 1 MOA or better using quality ammunition. As the rifle feature aluminum monolithic upper receiver, it can withstand hundreds of rounds fired even in fully automatic mode.
Shooting Impressions
Shooting the ARAD and Carmel rifle back to back, the ARAD has a higher rate of fire at 700-1100 rounds per minute with the 11.5” barrel. Needless to say, the select fire ARAD requires good gun handling skill from the shooter in order to maintain muzzle control towards the target which is not dissimilar to the HK416 in full-auto. Keep in mind that this rifle is not designed to replace the X95 in the Israeli Defense Force as there are units that are waiting to transition from M4/M16 to X95 as well as due to higher manufacturing cost.
The trigger initial take-up weight is average at approximately 5-6 pounds, but becomes light as it breaks which feels safe but also can be used for accurate fire in semi-automatic mode. In semi-auto, one can precisely place head-shots at 75 yards in standing position.
Conclusion
This is the Israeli’s take on an AR and they have hit it out of the park. The only question everybody has now is how soon will be available commercially in semi-auto for the civilian market and what will the price be?
