In 1946,
Ta'as studied plans to produce an indigenous light machine gun. By the end of the year, the
Haganah (precursor to the
Israel Defense Forces) bought the manufacturing rights to the
M1941 Johnson machine gun from the
Winchester Repeating Arms Company and developed the Dror in its own clandestine workshops. Yisrael Galili was in charge of overseeing the Dror's production.
Design The Dror is air-cooled and recoil-operated. The barrel uses a rotary bolt with multiple radial lugs mounted. The Dror is fired from an open-bolt in full auto for better cooling, or from a closed-bolt in semi-auto for better accuracy. The Pattern 1 Dror bore a physical resemblance to the Johnson, including the tall front sight and the barrel release. Its barrel release is now located at the front barrel bearing with a heat shield, which is colored orange/brown, and can be removed without the need for protective gloves. The Pattern 2 Dror was built by IMI and was chambered in
7.92×57 mm Mauser to take advantage of large quantities of recently imported Mauser ammunition. In this pattern, the magazines were mounted vertically under the receiver. ==Service history==