Interesting. IIRC, some months back the DoD (I think it was the DoD) was eschewing the Trophy system for the FCS, on the belief the end product would be superior to the already-available Trophy.
Either way, I’d be interested to see how Trophy works out for our guys. The old Soviet “Drozd” system is supposed to have worked quite well in Afghanistan. Of course, that was a different era when it comes to AT missiles/rockets. But then again, Trophy is probably a heck of a lot more sophisticated, too.
Rafael Industries is a world class Israeli defense arms producer.
This is the first active tank protection system in the world. Its being installed on all Israeli Merkava tanks.
This MAY be related to the new RPG from Russia, which uses a shaped charge to send a stream of molten copper ( through at least one side of an M-1) They may have found that “reactive armor” was inadequate to stop it.
DG
More spending from the obese defense contractors. My solution to dense urban warfare, get something like ten armed Hughes 500s for every infantry battalion. Not assigned, but part of the unit. Give the zero to 2,500 air space to them. That airspace is now open and not/lightly contested. Why maneuver in just 2 dimensions? A company should have a light attack chopper assigned to it. In this case Army aviation has to become ordinary, like mechanized infantry was once a special corps, but is not so common as to be unthought of. I’d pull the pilots from E-7/8, from the unit. I’d also rotate the pilots back to the rank, making the pilot qualification common.
The trouble is Army aviation and defense contractors would want to load up the craft, requiring a bigger engine, bigger aircraft, less air frames....
The troops need a light, armed air jeep, produced the same, low costs, disposable.
I have seen the videos of the ‘successful tests’ of the system. It would seem that a dismount ‘might’ just be at some risk of being made dead from this system.
So, the old “Death before Dismount” would have some real season.....
Then again, I tend to see armour as a bullet magnet anyway.
FYI