(Washington) After years of deliberation (And procrastination) The US Army has finally made its mind up and
gone with the combat proven Israeli made
‘Trophy’ Active protection system in which to protect its M1A2 Main Battle tanks
from enemy Anti-tank missiles . Last week the Pentagon reported that the Army
had hired General Dynamics Land Systems to add the system to an unspecified
number of tanks in an “Armour brigade combat team” as part of an “urgent material
release.” The $10 million deal will be completed by March 2019.
Trophy, is a “hard kill” active protection system for tanks and other armoured vehicles. It combines a radar with launchers that shoot a burst of metal pellets, akin to a large shotgun, to destroy incoming anti-tank rockets and missiles. Israel deployed the system on its own Merkava main battle tanks in 2009 and since then has successfully intercepted a number of anti-tank missile. resulting in no Merkavas suffering any damage due to Anti-tank missiles as used by Islamic terrorists
However this isn't the full story as the US Army is only fitting out 1 combat team with Trophy, leaving the other 13 without, which is exactly the same pound foolish penny shy mentality that the IDF had in 2005 before they went into Lebanon and a well executed Hezb-allah defensive plan based around lots of Anti-Tank missiles. Since then every Merkava tank tank is now fitted with Trophy.
