Galil ACE 21

Description

Produced by Israel Weapon Industries Ltd. (IWI), the ACE family of weapons are an updated version of their Galil assault rifle, which was produced from 1973 onwards whilst under their former company name of Israel Military Industries (IMI).

As with many assault rifles of that era, the original Galil was primarily manufactured from steel components, with the usual exceptions of the pistol grip and handguard. In an effort to reduce overall weight, the ACE design replaced the steel lower receiver with one now constructed of a lightweight, yet incredibly strong polymer.

Other improvements are the introduction of a two stage sniper style trigger, an automatic ‘hold open’ device (activated by the empty magazine platform), fitting of a full length upper receiver Picatinny rail and a more comfortable fully adjustable telescopic stock.

The standard ACE 21 can only take specific Galil manufactured magazines, however the ACE 21N is designed for the use of standard NATO (Colt style) 30 round magazines.

Variants have also been produced in both main NATO and Soviet calibres, with the ACE 31/32 both in 7.62x39mm and the ACE 52 in 7.62x51mm.

Although a relatively new weapon system, ACE has seen widespread use, particularly by armed/police forces in Central and South America.