India has signed an agreement worth US$118 million for the purchase of 16,479 Negev 7.62x51mm light machine guns from Israeli arms manufacturer Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) according to Asia pacific defence journal.

The decision to acquire more than 16,000 LMGs was decided in 2018, as the Indian government tries to reduce the requirement gap after several failures to acquire the needed small arms for the Indian Army’s 382 infantry battalions.

The Indian Army is no stranger to the Negev LMG, as it's Para Special Forces units are already using the Negev NG7 since 2012 as its standard Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW).

The IWI Negev NG7 is the 7.62x51mm variant of the Negev family of light machine guns, which is also available in 5.56x45mm variant. It can use belt-fed, drum, or standard 7.62mm NATO magazines, and weighs around 17.4 pounds.

It is the primary light machine gun of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).