[Military Sub-Plane] By Friedrich Lau
According to a U.S. Department of Defense release in early July, it awarded General Dynamics Land Systems a $280 million fixed-price contract to procure "Trophy" active protection systems for the M1A2 SEPv2 and M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams series main battle tanks. The upgrade is expected to be completed on July 7, 2027, with the Detroit Arsenal in Michigan as the contractor.
▲ Raphael Trophy active protection system mounted on the M1A2 Abrams main battle tank
Trophy APS, developed by Raphael Defense Systems, is a situational awareness and active protection hard kill (HK) system, the principle is to first use detection radar to track and locate enemy shells within 50 meters of their own vehicles, and then destroy the incoming target by firing dense steel balls after entering the range of 15 meters. There are three main configurations. HV (heavy armored units), MV (medium and light armored units) and LV (light armored units). Among them, the Trophy-HV can provide comprehensive protection for heavy (>30 tons) and medium (>15 tons) armored vehicles, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and high-explosive bombs.
At the same time, the system will also reserve a safe zone for friendly forces when defending, and will only be activated when the incoming threat is about to hit its own unit (within 15 meters), and at the same time use the downward firing of projectiles to "shoot" the incoming target on the ground. It can not only reduce the probability of accidental injury of their own soldiers, but also greatly improve the battlefield survivability of the troops, providing an important guarantee for the armored mobile combat team.
▲ Merkava IV equipped with Trophy
The birth of Trophy stems from the bloody lessons learned by the Israeli army on the battlefield. During the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli conflict, a large number of anti-tank missiles (13,000) from lebanese Allah forces inflicted massive damage on Israeli armored vehicles, leading israel to shift its focus from reactive armor to active protection systems. Subsequently, Trophy made it possible to make an effective interception in Gaza on 1 March 2011, shielding an IDF Merkava-IV tank from a rocket attack. Subsequently, Trophy also participated extensively in other military operations with the Israeli army, and achieved good results, such as during operation Guarding the Edge in 2014, israeli tanks were not lost in Gaza.
▲ Merkava IV main battle tank during Operation Guardian Edge
Subsequently, Trophy's outstanding performance attracted the attention of the United States. In 2016, the U.S. military leased four sets of Trophy from Israel for trial, and signed a purchase contract for the system at the end of 2017. On September 8, 2021, General Dynamics demonstrated to the public the M1A2 SEP V2 main battle tank equipped with the Trophy active defense system designed and manufactured by the Israeli company Raphael at the International Defense Industry Exhibition MSPO 2021 in Kielce, Poland.
▲ M1A2 SEP V2 Abrams main battle tank equipped with the Raphael Trophy active protection system on display at MSPO 2021