Israel unveils defense shield for Merkavas

As Israel braces for more wars with Hezbollah and Hamas, the army has unveiled a miniature anti-missile system to protect its Merkava tanks and other armored vehicles from missiles that Hezbollah used with withering effect in the 34-day 2006 conflict. The system, known as Trophy, has been in development by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems for some time but was given impetus by the setbacks the Israeli military suffered in the 2006 fighting.

At the recent unveiling of Trophy at a military base overlooking the Mediterranean, the commander of Israeli armor in northern Israel, identified only as Yehezkel, said Trophy will be installed on a battalion of the latest Merkava IVs -- around 36 tanks -- by the end of the year.

He noted that of the 250-300 Merkavas engaged in the 2006 war against Hezbollah, half a dozen were destroyed by mines or rockets, largely the Russian 9M133 Kornet, known in NATO as the AT-14 Spriggan, the 9K111 Fagot, or AT-4 Spigot, and the 9K113 Konkurs, or AT-5 Spandrel.

More than 30 were disabled, although many of those were repaired and remained operational, by marauding Hezbollah hunter-killer missile teams operating across south Lebanon, where the main ground fighting took place.

Nineteen Merkava crewmen were killed. The Israeli military had not suffered armored losses like that since the 1973 war against Egypt and Syria, but in that conflict Israel was fighting conventional armies, not guerrillas. Against less-well-armed Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip in the 22-day winter war in December 2008-January 2009, the Israelis' only casualty in the Armored Corps, which deployed 130-140 tanks, was a crewman shot by a sniper, according to Yehezkel

This "news" is some pretty heavy sh!t.

The Israeli's have been dealing with the Hizzies for a while. Their Merkavas is a pretty damn good tank; but like all tanks is vulnerable without light infantry abound.
Even then, without light infantry, the Hizzies had a hard time against this beast.

This article is sending more of a message to idjits in lands adjacent; "Mess with us, we'll enter the heart's of your country" and without the need for light infantry everywhere, they'll make it happen (while conventional bombing the hizzies into literal oblivion; saves a nuke, right?)

It will not be that easy even with systems like the Trophy (which is quite the system. Israel, together with Russia and the US, have been exploring various hard and soft kill systems to protect their tanks, particularly since in the perennial war between weapon and armor the weapon has been having the upper hand for quite some time now. Not even the Leopard 2, Challenger 2 or Abrams are invulnerable). What a system like Trophy does is protect the tank from dual-warhead modern anti-tank missiles. The system works (and not just the Israeli one but also the Russian one, and the US has been testing some concepts that also show promise - if they are not cancelled).

The PROBLEM is that the 'war' between weapon and armor (whether the 'armor' is rolled homogenized steel, chobham armor, ERA packs, or a hard-kill system like Trophy) is that the weapon immediately starts to evolve as well. Already Russia is showing a concept whereby the missile fired releases a small 'micro-missile' ahead of it, which is intercepted by the hard kill system, enabling the 'main' missile to impact the tank! You pick a stick, I wear leather, you make a sword, I wear chain mail, you invent the bow, I wear plate mail, you invent a gun, I build a tank, you build a missile, etc etc etc etc. The war between weapon and armor goes on.

Furthermore, even without the new missile designs, the Trophy system can be saturated. It may intercept one Kornet missile, but what if four are launched at the same time? The cost of a Kornet is far far far less than the cost of a Merkava. Or, if I was in charge of guerilla tactics against Merkavas in an urban environment (one of the worst places for a Main Battle Tank), I would have 5 chaps with RPG-7s and two chaps operating Kornets. Have the 5 guys fire the RPGs, and a moment later the Kornets are fired. I'd bet doughnuts that the Merkava, if not killed, is definitely out of commission.

Thats a good rendition of what I see, Israel has been always ahead of offensive weaponry, to me I always think of the Uzi when I hear of Israel.
There is nothing wrong with a continuous involvement of technology, what is wrong is when a leader of a nation decides to shut such research down and to create policies of surrender.

Through history its often wars and preparing for wars that allow a nation to expand and grow.Britain ruled the seas until the steel clad monitors arrived, who knows what the next great advancement in offensive weapons will be, my first hopeful guess will be miniature guided bullets, or smart urban drones with adaptive camouflage that will hunt down terrorists in any location.

We have the the resources to build smart bullets, we have them in certain aspects already with distance timed spin fuzing but what is need now is literally steerable bullets, or micro miniature cruise missiles.

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