Israel announces the acquisition of additional Trophy systems

Image: Rafael Advanced Defense Systems

The Israel Ministry of Defense's Directorate of Production and Procurement (DoPP) will purchase hundreds of additional Trophy active protection systems from local defence contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, it announced on 11 November. The new systems will equip the Merkava Mk4 main battle tank (MBT) and Namer armoured personnel carrier (APC) fielded by Israeli ground forces. The Trophy HV version will provide additional protection capability to the vehicles.   

Trophy is a multi-platform armoured vehicle-mounted situational awareness and active protection hard kill system which is available in HV (Heavy Armored Vehicle), MV (Medium Armored Vehicle) and LV (Light Armored Vehicle) configurations. It was designed to provide all-around protection against a wide range of threats, such as rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank guided missiles and high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds. 

[inlinead]

The protection system allows the neutralisation of threats fired from very-short ranges, and multiple, simultaneous threats arriving from the same or other direction in close and urban terrain and in all weather conditions and offers minimum collateral damage. Trophy HV, also known as ASPRO-A or "Meil Ruach" in Hebrew is composed of four radar antennas designed by Israel Aerospace Industries-ELTA Systems to identify and tracks incoming threats, computer to identify and track the threat and plot the best intercept solution, automatic reloading systems and two countermeasure launchers with ballistic protection shield. It can be linked to the vehicle's battle management system (BMS). Trophy HV's radars can also be used to detect the location of foe troops, by scanning 360º around the battle tank.   

The locally developed and manufactured Merkava Mk4 MBT, which is the backbone of the Israel Defense Force's Armored Corps, is armed with a turreted 120mm Israel Military Industries’ MG253 smoothbore gun, 60mm mortar system and 12.7mm and 7.62mm machine guns for self-protection. The Namer heavy APC incorporates pintle-mounted 7.62mm machine gun and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems' Katlanit (lethal) remote-controlled protected weapon station armed with 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

The Namer (Leopard) is jointly produced by the Israel Ministry of Defense's Tank Production Office and US contractor General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS).