When Estonia regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it was initially armed with a wide variety of miscellaneous small arms. They clearly needed a primary standardized rifle for the new armed forces. The one definitive criteria for making a selection was than the new rifle must be chambered for the 5.56mm NATO cartridge, as Estonia knew from the beginning that its long-term survival as an autonomous state depended on joining the NATO alliance.
In 1994, Estonia put out an official tender for rifles, and it only received viable offers from two places: Vektor in South Africa, and IMI in Israel. Estonia had neither much money nor much credit history (so to speak), and the larger European manufacturers were wary of contracting with them. Between the two offers (both for Galil rifles), the Israeli was deemed better, and Estonia proceeded to purchase about 12,000 Galils from IMI. The significant majority were full length AR type, but there was also a small subset of compact SAR carbines in the purchase. These rifles served as the service rifles for the full-time professional element of the Estonian military, with annual conscript levies using a variety of other weapons (largely H&K G3 variations). In addition, during Estonian NATO missions to Iraq and Afghanistan, the deployed units were all issued Galils if they did not already have them.
In 2008, Estonia had a rifle modernization program that was the modification of most of the Galils with a package of upgrades. They were fitted with quad-rail hand guards (B&T), Aimpoint red dot optics, Aimpoint 3x magnifiers on B&T quick-detach mounts (affixed to the original Galil top covers), B&T vertical front grips, and domestic Estonian-made charging handle extensions. With these updates, the Galils continued to serve as Estonia’s primary infantry rifle until the adoption of the new LMT R20 rifles starting in 2019.
Thanks to the Supply Battalion of the Estonian Defense Forces for giving me access to these rifles and their history to film for you!
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