Trophy tank defense system in action
Posted on 09/07/2006 3:25:34 PM PDT by SmithL
A tank missile defense system, developed by the Rafael Armament Development Authority will be ready for installation on IDF tanks in "several months" if the Treasury decides to fund the purchase of the system, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
In addition, Rafael is currently hoping to gain from a Senate decision ordering US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to bring outside experts to assess the need for and use of tank defense systems for the US Army. The order from the Senate came following an NBC in-depth investigation into why the US Army had decided to purchase Raytheon's active protection system, which would only be ready in five years while the Trophy was already operational and ready to be purchased.
NBC claimed that there was too close an alliance between the US Army and Raytheon and that Raytheon staff were members of an Army team that had rejected the Trophy.
Rafael's Business Development Manager Didi Benyoash said Thursday that the Israeli defense company was conducting "advanced negotiations" with the Pentagon over the purchase of several models of the system to be used in trials on armored vehicles operating in Iraq.
"We will be ready to supply the system in a number of months if we receive orders to from Israel or the US Army," Benyoash said. In March, Rafael conducted a successful experiment of the Trophy for the US Army in Israel. "The war in Lebanon proved that active-protection systems are the only real way today to protect tanks," he added.
While Rafael was hoping to gain from the Senate's decision, Benyoash claimed that the Israeli defense company had "absolutely nothing" to do with the NBC report that exposed the close and possibly illegitimate relationship between Raytheon and the US Army.
The Trophy system creates a hemispheric protected zone around armored vehicles such as the Merkava tank, which operated prominently in Lebanon. The system is designed to detect and track a threat and counters it with a launched projectile that intercepts the anti-tank missile.
The IDF has asked the Treasury for a budget boost following the war in Lebanon amounting to NIS 10 billion. A part of the money, a high-ranking officer said, would be allocated to install active protection systems like the Trophy on IDF tanks.
I am thinking that a chain-link fence on posts welded around the tank would work, too.
Basically, any RPG/tank missle that hit it would explode harmlessly when it hit the "fence."
K.I.S.S.
More modern missile warheads won't be defeated by such a system, which is essentially what the Stryker uses already.
K.I.S.S.
Except when the threat doesn't cooperate, then you have to get sneaky.
Well, I could be wrong, but according to sites like www.defensetech.org, part of the problem could be that how's the system to distinguish between an RPG and a kid throwing a rock? It could very well simply be overwhelming support for the U.S. military industry, but given the DOD's actions in the past, I don't think this can be said without question.
Yeah:
http://www.fototime.com/08EDB8A9060A751/orig.jpg
I am not at all certain that the missles Hez-ebola is using qualify as "more modern missles warheads."
I suspect not.
Regardless, the high tech and low tech together would be my choice.
Koranshredder 2000.
"I am thinking that a chain-link fence on posts welded around the tank would work, too.
Basically, any RPG/tank missle that hit it would explode harmlessly when it hit the "fence."
K.I.S.S."
It might work once, perhaps . . .
You need a really fast flyswatter.
Yeah, check out my post 5 for my inspiration photo.
If the kid can pitch a rock at 300 to 600 miles an hour he wouldn't be throwing rocks at tanks he would be in MLB.
If the kid is throwing a rock, then he is a hostile that needs to be taken out anyway before he acquires an RPG.
Do you work for Raytheon?
No, why?
Just that proposed an alternative to the Raphel Trophy system.
BTW, if no one has said it yet, vehicles already have stand off gratings to pre-detonate rpgs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
