Israel to deploy Trophy 'active protection system' in Merkava IV tanks (with video)
Israel will spend $350,000 per tank to equip each of its next-generation Merkava IV tanks with the Trophy active protection system. Israel already has several current generation Merkava tanks that are equipped with Trophy, and it expects to have an entire battalion equipped with it by 2010. The extra protection will add about one ton to the weight of each tank. Here's a video of how Trophy works.Let's go to the videotape.
You can read more about Trophy here.
Three years ago, the United States decided not to buy the Trophy system. That refusal still holds.
The Pentagon tested Trophy in March 2006. One of the testers told NBC that it "worked in every case. … According to our test criteria the system was 30 for 30." The U.S.-based Institute for Defense Analyses has compared 15 active protection anti-missile systems and ranked Trophy at the top.
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The U.S. Department of Defense has a contract with Raytheon to develop an equivalent active protection system, known as Quick Kill. A prototype is supposed to be ready this year for installation on current armored vehicles. The U.S. Army resisted proposals to battle test the Trophy system in Iraq in 2007.
I guess the US is afraid of being dependent on Israel for weapons. That seems pretty foolish to me. (As some of you may recall, I criticized Israel for insisting on developing its own short-range anti-missile system rather than buying an American system whose development was complete, so I am pretty fair about those kinds of criticism). What happened to 'military cooperation'?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:36 AM
3 Comments:
What happened to 'military cooperation'?
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This has in many ways become an oxymoron in our relationship with the US.
The US is afraid of using Israeli military technology to its own benefit but it drags its feet on the sale of US military technology to Israel.
Hopenchange, any one?
What happened to military cooperation?
Obama and arabists in State Department and in the Pentagon. Thats what.
We've been told, privately, and off the record, that Israeli connections or contacts for government procurements of any sort are problematic.
What year is this? 1936?
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