The British Char Challenger 3 (also) will be protected by the Israeli Trophy system

We knew London was planning to endow his future Challenger 3 tank, a retrofit of the Challenger 2 currently in service to alleviate the faults and obsolescence and make it possible to link up with a possible replacement from 2035, a Hard-Kill protection system to increase protection against missiles and anti-tank rockets. The British Ministry of Defense has just confirmed that the Trophy active protection system by the Israeli Rafael had been chosen for this, in this case in his light version Trophy MV / VPS. The British Army will therefore be the 3rd NATO army to choose the Israeli self-protection system, after the US Army which ordered 400 kits to equip its M1A2 Abrams on mission, i.e. the equivalent of 4 Combat brigades, and the German army, which ordered about thirty of these systems for equip, if necessary, the equivalent of a company with Leopard 2.

Entered service in 2011 to equip the Merkava Mk4 tanks and Namer infantry fighting vehicles of the Israeli Army, the Trophy quickly gained a reputation for efficiency, both in practice and in combat, since no Israeli armored vehicle protected by the system has been lost since its entry into service, and that the manufacturer, like the tests carried out by the US Army, would have made it possible to demonstrate an effectiveness of the order of 95% against rockets and anti-tank missiles. It is based on 4 EL / M-2133 radar antennas covering the 360 ​​° surrounding the armored vehicle, and capable of detecting projectiles targeting it. A computer then determines the optimum interception position to send there an MEFP ammunition composed of several penetrators in a compact matrix responsible for destroying the projectile without threatening the surrounding Allied forces. Over the versions, the Trophy has seen its capabilities increase, notably to intercept shaped charge shells fired from another armored vehicle, and soon, according to Rafael, to destroy the kinetic penetrators of modern arrow shells. It has also seen its weight reduced, from nearly a ton in its initial version, to only 600 kg in the MV / VPS version, and even 200 kg in the “Light” version intended to protect light vehicles. The weight loss of the MV version was accompanied by a drop in prices, to settle below the million dollar mark.

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