Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems yesterday said its Trophy system, the operational Active Protection System (APS) for armored fighting vehicles and military battle tanks (MBT) developed for the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD) has completed an evaluation by the U.S. Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD).
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Stryker Armored Fighting Vehicle fitted with Trophy withstood numerous missiles and rocket attacks under a six-week test and evaluation program, the company said.
For the OSD evaluation, Rafael integrated the Trophy System on an IDF Stryker Armored Fighting Vehicle.
The six-week intensive test program evaluated the system under complex combat scenarios against a variety of advanced, anti-tank rockets (ATRs) and guided missiles (ATGMs), including tandem warheads. The Trophy System demonstrated outstanding performance in the test series, defeating different types of threats, the company said.
Test results were presented by OSD testers to senior OSD and U.S, Army representatives during a VIP day Jan. 25.
Giora Katz, corporate vice president and general manager of Land and Naval Sector at Rafael, said: “We are very satisfied with the test results. We chose to be evaluated on a Stryker to show Trophy’s diversity–on one hand the system protects Merkava 4 (main battle tank) MBT along Israel’s borders and on the other hand it can protect light and medium Armored Fighting Vehicles as they are part of the current battlefield.”
An earlier version of the Trophy system was tested to include live fire tests for two weeks in early 2006 at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Va., while mounted on a Stryker vehicle (Defense Daily, April 6, 2006).
The Stryker with the Trophy APS tested at Dahlgren was one of three Israel bought for testing in 2005. General Dynamics [GD] produces the Stryker vehicle. The Dahlgren tests were a follow on to comprehensive IDF tests in Israel.
In 2005, General Dynamics and Rafael signed a teaming agreement to introduce Trophy in the United States for possible integration on ground vehicles. That agreement has lapsed.
The Trophy Situational Awareness and Active Protection Hard Kill System operates in three major stages: threat detection, threat tracking, followed by hard kill (HK) countermeasure (Multiple Explosive Formed Penetrators–MEFP) activation and threat neutralization.
The countermeasure activation takes place only if the threat trajectory is aimed to hit the platform. In addition to the active protection, the Trophy System provides the location of the threat’s launching point to the vehicle’s Battle Management Systems (BMS) and/or Remote Controlled Weapon Station (RCWS), thus enabling quick engagement with the target.
Lt. Col. Oren Giver Head, survivability systems branch at IMOD/Directorate of Defence Research and Development (MAFAT), said: “We are very happy with the test results and with the collaboration and the professional way the system was tested by the OSD/Army at Aberdeen. The Trophy system is the result of years of development by a dedicated integrated team from the Israeli industry, the IDF and IMOD, and an excellent example for how the right R&D at the right time results in a force multiplying answer, allowing our MBT, Merkava Mark 4 to meet advanced ATGMs and ATRs with great advantage.”