Posted on 03/03/2011 7:22:29 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
In first, Israel blocks Palestinian anti-tank rocket
TEL AVIV — For the first time, an Israeli system has intercepted an enemy missile fired toward a main battle tank.
The Israeli military said the Trophy Active Protection System (APS) intercepted a Palestinian anti-tank missile in the southern Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. They said Trophy, also known as Windbreaker, stopped the missile before it struck a Merkava Mk-4 MBT on late March 1. The crew was not injured and the Merkava was not said to have sustained damage.
"For the first time during operational activity, the Trophy system, designed to actively protect against anti-tank missiles, identified, alerted and intercepted the missile," a military statement said.
The statement said the Israel Army MBT was engaged in what was termed "routine activity" in southern Gaza. The military did not identify the Palestinian anti-tank missile but said its crew was tracked and struck in counter-fire.
"Shortly afterwards, IDF soldiers identified several terrorists in the area and fired in their direction, identifying a hit," the statement said.
A military source later said the projectile fired toward the Merkava was actually a rocket-propelled grenade. The source said the interception proved that Trophy could protect the Merkava from other threats, including anti-tank guided missiles.
Trophy, developed by Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, was designed to detect, track and intercept incoming anti-tank missiles. The APS was programmed to fire a projectile that could destroy the incoming missile before reaching the MBT. Rafael said the United States has completed an evaluation of Trophy.
In December, Hamas fired a Russian-origin AT-14 Kornet anti-tank missile that penetrated the Merkava Mk-4. The Hamas operation sparked an Army effort to install Trophy on all Merkavas deployed along the Gaza border.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldtribune.com ...
Way to go, Israel.
While I would never wish death on another human(who doesn’t desire it) an FAE at the next hamas rally would probably send. A message.
I like the way you think.
Nice to know our pals the Russians are still in the export business.
I still can’t wrap my head around the “hard kill” part of the system. What exactly is that thing that takes out the incoming projectile? None of the YouTube clips give any details. Must be tippy-top secret.
Harry Potter’s wand, perhaps?
“Projectilus Dissasemblias!”
It would make supporting infantry a bit nervous, to say the least. Not to mention in an urban setting...
“Boys! Play that softball game somewhere else!”
Nice! If the hordes ever do decide ol’ “Allah” wants them to try to run the Zionists into the Great Sea, I would imagine they’ll be in for more than a few nasty — and highly advanced — surprises! Not to mention highly explosive.
http://defense-update.com/wp/20110301_trophy.html
There’s a video at the bottom of this page-it claims that the risk of injury to friendly forces is less than 1 percent.
Expect a UN condemnation for the unprovoked Israeli attack on a defenseless anti-tank missile.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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It’s described in some of the Trophy promo stuff as something akin to birdshot, just enough to ruin an RPG’s day.
One other aspect of the system is the ability to triangulate the origin of the incoming round and pass the information to the battle manager network in order to, as they so euphemistically put it, “eliminate the threat.”
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