On February 22, Germany signed a contract with Israel to purchase the Trophy active protection system (APS) for its Leopard 2A7 Main Battle Tanks. The installation and integration of the system into the tank are to be carried out by Kraus-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), the Leopard’s manufacturer. It is expected that in the future Germany will procure additional Trophy systems to equip most of its modern fleet of Leopard 2 MBTs with APS capabilities.
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Leopard 2A7A1 fitted with Rafael’s Trophy APS. An assumption, the « A1 » suffix may refer to the APS addition (Picture source: KMW)
Following the decision, which was made by the BAAINBw and approved by the Bundestag, Rafael was awarded a contract for an initial batch of Trophy systems, which includes a contract with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), the Leopard MBTs OEM, entailing the provision of systems for a company of tanks, interceptors, and spare parts, as well as operational and technical training. The systems will be delivered over the next several years.
Developed by Rafael in response to successful anti-armor attacks, Trophy APS provides mature, combat-proven protection against rocket and missile threats and simultaneously locates the origin of the hostile fire for immediate response. Trophy is the only fully integrated, combat-proven APS in the world and has been installed on Israel Defense Forces’ Merkava tanks since 2010, as well as on the Namer APCs. Trophy has made numerous combat interceptions with no injuries to crews or dismounted troops or damage to platforms since its first operational interception in 2011. Trophy has accrued over 1,000,000 operating hours, including 5,400 successful field tests, and is now under contract for serial production of over 1,800 systems.
In January 2021, Rafael and partner DRS announced that they had completed the delivery of Trophy Active Protection Systems (APS) ordered by the U.S. Army for installation on Abrams main battle tanks, under contracts awarded on an urgent need basis by the Army’s Program Executive Office for Ground Combat Systems.
