FoxNews reports that Israel's Trophy double-radar anti-RPG system will soon be installed on US Army armored vehicles in Iraq on a trial basis.The report details the system that "works like a futuristic force field," and which other sources say has already been installed in Israeli Merkava 4 tanks as a pilot project. Trophy, which looks "no more menacing than an automatic tennis ball launcher," one analyst said, is designed to be mounted on a fighting vehicle while it provides it a virtual bubble of protection.
Trophy uses one radar to detect the launching of an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) or the like at it. Another radar then tracks the incoming missile and detects when it is in range. At that point, Trophy employs a counter-measure, whose details are still secret, to directly hit and neutralize the head of the threat, thus detonating it before it makes contact with the targeted tank or vehicle.
The now-powerless RPG might still hit its target, but with no more force than any other metal object, and would certainly not be able to penetrate.
John Pike, director of the GlobalSecurity.org website, says, "The future of the the United States Army is riding on the proposition that something like this can work."
The report emphasizes that Trophy does not work against IED's (improvised explosive devices, otherwise known as roadside bombs) or land mines, but is rather designed to eliminate the explosive capability of threats flying at a vehicle. It can also be outfitted for helicopeters, but not on ships.
Only IED's have killed more American soldiers in Iraq than have RPG's.