DRS Land Systems for active protection aboard M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks

WARREN, Mich. — U.S. Army armored combat vehicle experts needed active protection systems to shield the Army’s fleet of M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks from rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank guided missiles, and similar threats. They found their solution from DRS Land Systems in St. Louis.

Officials of the Army Contracting Command in Warren, Mich., announced a $192.5 million two-year contract to DRS Land Systems to build Abrams Active Protection Systems for the M1A2 tank.

DRS will provide the active protection systems, sets of countermeasures and calibration and maintenance kits for the Abrams M1A2 system enhancement program (SEP) version 2.

DRS Land Systems is adapting Israeli-developed technology to help shield M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks from rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles.

DRS is working together with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. in Haifa, Israel, to adapt the Rafael Trophy active protection system to the M1A2 Abrams tank. Rafael developed Trophy together with the Elta Group of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. in Ashdod, Israel. The Trophy system intercepts and destroys incoming missiles and rockets with a shotgun-like blast.

Trophy is designed to locate and destroy incoming enemy fire instantly using a 360-degree radar, processor, and on-board computer. It can locate, track, and destroy approaching anti-tank-guided-missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, or similar anti-armor weapons by launching a countermeasure to detonate the incoming munition away from the vehicle.

The interceptor uses small shaped charges attached to a gimbal on top of the vehicle. The small explosives fire to a point in space to intercept and destroy the approaching round. Trophy locates and identifies incoming threats with radar that scans the tank’s perimeter out to a known range. The on-board computer determines the optimal kill point for any incoming threat.

Trophy has been used in combat on Israeli Merkava tanks. In addition to locating and destroying incoming missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, the system also can locate and cue weapons to the positions enemy shooters.

The DRS-Rafael Trophy system can defeat all known anti-armor shaped-charge weapons, like missiles, rockets, and tank-fired high-explosive anti-tank shells before they strike the tank.

The system enables networked threat awareness by pinpointing and reporting shooter location improves platform protection with low risk of collateral injury, and can ensure freedom of movement and maneuver, DRS officials say.

On this contract DRS Land Systems will do the work in St. Louis, and should be finished by March 2020.

For more information contact DRS Land Systems online at www.leonardodrs.com/locations/drs-land-systems-st-louis-mo, or the Army Contracting Command-Warren at http://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-wrn.