In 1982, with the foresight of what the modern battlefield was becoming, IWI in a decade long collaboration with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Research & Development teams, developed the new standard issue weapon for the IDF. The TAVOR® was born. Mr. Zalman Shebs, known as the “father of the TAVOR,” spearheaded the team to develop a weapon system that was capable of moving from open field conflicts to close-quarter engagements and from daylight to nighttime capabilities – seamlessly on a single mission.