Posted on 07/25/2014 3:26:10 AM PDT by Star Traveler
JERUSALEM–At least five times in the past week in Gaza, Israeli tanks equipped with a revolutionary defense system have deflected anti-tank missiles fired at them by Hamas fighters, according to the Israeli army.
The success of the Windbreaker system, as it is called in Israel, augments on the ground the technological achievement in the air of the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system which Israel credits with neutralizing the intensive rocketing from Gaza of the past two weeks.
The Windbreaker system (known abroad as Trophy), which became operational in 2009, has since been successfully tested by live fire twice when Israeli tank patrols on the periphery of Gaza were fired on two years ago. The current Gaza campaign is the first time the system is being tested in a face-to-face war against advanced Russian anti-tank rockets. In the 2006 Lebanon War against Hezbollah, missiles penetrated 22 Israeli tanks, destroying several.
Installed on Israel’s most-advanced tank, the Merkava 1V, the system’s sensors instantly identify a rocket or RPG heading toward it. Without intervention of the crew, the system fires pellets that detonate the rocket at a safe distance from the tank. It also informs the crew of the location from which the incoming rocket was launched, permitting counter-fire.
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
Coming to an M1A2 near you...
Hopefully.
Wonder if it would work on helicopters? Sounds feasible to me.
“Star Wars” stuff. Too bad they couldn’t figure out how to
explode those rockets just as they are fired, might save a lot more lives after taking out the missile firing crews.
Trophy is a very heavy system in terms of weight. Probably not coming for choppers soon, but maybe someday.
Also, this idea probably came from David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers series, written beginning in the 70s. Hovertanks had belts of what was basically claymore mines around them and would automatically fire off a short segment in the closest belt to sweep RPGs and missiles out of the sky prior to them hitting. Trophy sounds like the same thing.
when will the “Palestinians” ever tire of living like rats running through rubble?
OUTSTANDING!
Assuming any Abrams tanks will be left operating after the regime is done.
Headlines from Gaza:
Windbreaker Makes Hamas Break Wind
LOL ...
Unfortunately, despite Rafael’s claims to the contrary, the Trophy, aka Windbreaker, system has claimed the life of one Israeli solder; further, only one brigade (401st armored) of tanks has the system.
That said, the 401st is unstoppable, unless the politicians decide to pause, allowing Hamas time to regroup and come up with a defense against it.
Right now, the Israelis are apparently debating whether of not to go for a major effort to totally destroy Hamas’ underground command center in Gaza City - which would be spearheaded by the 401st after IDF victories in Shejaiya, E. Rafah and Khan Younes.
“the Windbreaker system...”
Great technology, I’m very happy they have it.
Sure reminds me of Spinal Tap’s second album: “Break Like The Wind.”
This is an old idea though really, seriously studied with various alternatives having been tested since the Yom Kippur War was analyzed at least. Sturdy, reliable, sensors and electronics having been the bottleneck until mid-eighties. At that point the cost per vehicle became the main consideration. It came down to money compared to how real the threat was considered to be and when the threat was real enough it was sure to be deployed by anyone would could afford it.
Russians have considered the threat very real since WWII but not so severe that it couldn't be defeated by having more infantry with their tanks. Urban warfare becoming more common rules that solution out to a degree, so they started extensive testing of such systems in the late eighties. The few tanks fitted with one of their systems performed well in Chechnya leading Russia to start widespread retrofitting albeit at a slow pace, or at least so I've heard.
There were multiple systems tested in both Russia and the US that I know of, probably in other countries as well. A friend in AL who works with the M1 says kits to fit a system like this to both the M1 and Bradley as well as M113s are already available but weather that means designed and tested or sitting in a warehouse waiting for the order to install them, I have no idea. Even reactive armor kits would be a major improvement on the M113. They melt like solder, splashing aluminum around when hit from an angle that isn't lethal (given the fact they're a shoebox, it's surprising how often they were hit from a bad angle in VN and not penetrated)
Obviously Israel can do what we and the Russians can when it comes to armor and most other weapons systems as long as they're willing to spend the money. The Russian system is known to work and work well it's just not been deployed to any great extent. Whether their system can be easily fitted to APCs and such, I don't know.
The U.S. in Iraq managed to light off some remote controlled IED's using something like a garage door opener. When the Iranians switched to coded ones, at least we could jam them. There were reports of suicide bombers having their charges lit off long before they go in range of U.S. forces. I love premature detonation.
Just hope this technology gets into U.S. systems soon.
And believe it or not, this administration wants to give Qatar — al Qaeda friendly Qatar — our Javelin, anti-tank, fire-and-forget, missile system.
I read that last week, I think, and I nearly choked.
With that system, counter fire is much less significant because the shooter can shoot and run.
The next American president along with Israel and the entire west should stop all TV broadcasts in Islamic countries and cut in with a “commercial” that runs 24/7 for a week. The “commercial” would tell them that unless all terrorist activity is stopped Mecca will be destroyed. End the “commercial” with an image of a thermonuclear device going off, mushroom cloud and all.
The response would be that zillions of islamists would go to Mecca to stand around and scream and holler. Fine, but keep to the plan...
Caches of MANPADS have been smuggled in to the US for years. Odds are that some morning we will wake up and see commercial airliners failing out of the sky by an air port near you.
Yeah, reactive ablative armor was around before that was written. He just made it actively fused rather than reactive.
Oh, I’m sure there will be plenty of Abrams around - only ISIS will be driving most of them, with a few in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and in other Muslim enclaves around the globe.
Our advanced military technology seems to keep mysteriously migrating into Islamist’s hands while our military is systematically degraded and purged of it’s leadership.
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