Posted on 09/05/2006 6:53:40 PM PDT by ruptured duck
WASHINGTON - Rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, are a favorite weapon of insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are cheap, easy to use and deadly.
RPGs have killed nearly 40 Americans in Afghanistan and more than 130 in Iraq, including 21-year-old Pvt. Dennis Miller.
“They were in Ramadi, and his tank was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade,” says Miller’s mother, Kathy. “Little Denny never knew what hit him.”
Sixteen months ago, commanders in Iraq began asking the Pentagon for a new system to counter RPGs and other anti-tank weapons.
Last year, a special Pentagon unit thought it found a solution in Israel — a high-tech system that shoots RPGs out of the sky. But in a five-month exclusive investigation, NBC News has learned from Pentagon sources that that help for U.S. troops is now in serious jeopardy.
The system is called “Trophy,” and it is designed to fit on top of tanks and other armored vehicles like the Stryker now in use in Iraq.
Trophy works by scanning all directions and automatically detecting when an RPG is launched. The system then fires an interceptor — traveling hundreds of miles a minute — that destroys the RPG safely away from the vehicle.
The Israeli military, which recently lost a number of tanks and troops to RPGs, is rushing to deploy the system.
Trophy is the brainchild of Rafael, Israel’s Armament Development Authority, which has conducted more than 400 tests and found that the system has “well above [a] 90 percent” probability of killing RPGs and even more sophisticated anti-tank weapons, according to reserve Col. Didi Ben Yoash, who helped develop the system.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Theres a good read about the system here...Tough to tell if the friendly fire concerns are valid or not.
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002361.html
How Bout' The GRUNTS Be Allowed To Do Their Job??
Kill The S-O-B With The RPG-AT Weapon!
This Is More "Safe-War" Krappola.
No sense giving it to people who can't operate it or maintain it.
Sorry, that I haven't been around since the inception or whatever requisite time required, which would "qualify" me as being able to express my opinion, unlike, no doubt an ol timer and erudite expert such as yourself.
On the flip side, I'll be 63 next month and didn't just fall off the turnip truck, "BOY."
I spent 8 years on active duty including 18 months in Nam and have seen up close and personal how the military can operate.
Thus, even if this story was written in Pravda, it "smells" like something the military would do and I'm allowed to vent and express my displeasure.
And if you don't like it, well, take a pill and chill!!!!
I am reminded of Wellington, when asked if Napoleon would be afraid of the British soldiers (recruited from the slums):
" I can't speak for Napoleon, but they frighten me!"
Some 20 years ago there was a movement to add Blazer reactive armor systems to US vehicles. A tank commander, knowing that his head would be outside the hatch next to the high explosive bricks attacked to his tank, differed. We got the Abrams with Chobham Armor instead and M-60s upgraded with Blazer armor. and the Bradley instead of M=113s with the same.
Now the Abrams is widely known as a great system. The Bradley, though it is rather large, is a great mech inf system. Neither is what we would design today, but both have served pretty well for a long time.
Trust the soldiers who make these decisions. I have found them to be of good quality.
Something doesn't smell right about this article.
98% effective and the military doesn't want it?
I grew up on a farm, so I'm familiar with bullshit.
This smells like bullshit.
I have been following the Land Warrior program for many years. One of my West Point classmates was the manager for that program. He also got roped into doing the buy for the berets when that happened. Got a lot of flak for that too.
There was a lot of concern about saving the one or two guy inside an Abrams tank that might be hurt by an RPG, and losing the infantry squad outside it. The guys inside are already protected by 11 inches of impervium. The guys outside are protected by ranger tabs, helmets, and flak jackets. Since there are 9 dismounts per Stryker or Bradley (fewer with scouts versions) you can see where doing the wrong thing can hurt a lot really quickly.
The decsionmakers are risk adverse, and know about the phrase "penny wise and pound foolish".
Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0snvhQmi78
I really can't believe what I'm reading on this thread tonight, including your inane statement that "the purpose for military operation is not necessarily to keep your men alive, but to carry the stated foreign policy goal"
ARE YOU FOR F'n REAL?
Apparently, you have NEVER been in the military and if you have, you have NEVER been in a combat situation, or you would not be making such asinine statements.
The job of the military is to kill and destroy. However, the military also has an "OBLIGATION" to do whatever it can to "protect" its combatants in order to prevail with the least cost in human casualties.
You should do a little studying about our history, friend, especially these following words which were uttered by one of our greatest wartime Generals: George S. Patton
"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."
Sounds a little messy.
TANKS;0)
I'm not an Infantryman...but wouldn't the guys outside the vehicle get chewed up by the shrapnel from the RPG anyway?
It just seems that the risk from a focused burst of shot taking out the RPG would be less.
Anyway, sorry to hear about your friends dubious duties. That must have been painful.
All I can say is, he is now safely retired, while I have some 20 years to go before I can retire.
Beat ya!
LOL! Great tagline!
War is a dangerous place. We hate to lose our troops, but it happens. We have to learn and try to improve tactics as there will always be something invented to harm our guys, just as we invent weapons to punish the enemy.
No wonder defense works for long.
If it's so effective, why haven't the Israelis launched a crash project to fit it to all of their vehicles? I seem to recall a number Israeli commanders not wanting to take their tanks into areas of Lebanon because of RPGs and such.
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