US Army Shuns System to Combat RPGs

[Command-Sense-Act 105]

And another thing for the crew to remember to disable in the "heater off, speakers off, gun safe, COAX safe, MG safe, MBGD safe (or all 4 clear, depending on your SOP and threat level - don't need another UNPROFOR fuel bladder/MBSGD incident), Anti-Missile safe (or clear), gun over back deck, hydraulics off" routine when going into a Running Replen!

 

[CougarKing]

I am surprised such a system even exists, though the concept is similar to Phalanx for warships, but at a smaller scale.

http://www.defense-update.com/products/t/trophy.htm

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1370706

 

[Thorvald]

From the http://www.defense-update.com/products/t/trophy.htm link:

Another worry is collateral damage, he said. “In a tight urban area, the Trophy system may take out the RPG, but we may kill 20 people in the process,” Sorenson said. “That is a concern we have that we haven’t fully evaluated.”

Hmm, gotta love that statement... ouch comes to mind.

 

[Maclimius]

This technology isn't a new concept. The Russians experimented with an active protection system in the late seventies to eighties before scrapping it due to high collateral damage. Ironically, it was used during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.

Drozd ("thrush" in Russian) is an active protection system developed in the Soviet Union, designed for increasing tanks' protection against anti-tank missiles and RPGs. It is considered the world's first operational active protection system, created in 1977–78 by A. Shipunov's KBP design bureau as Kompleks 1030M-01.

Drozd uses 24.5 GHz Doppler radar to detect incoming rounds travelling between 70 and 700 m/s (to avoid engaging small arms or other faster projectiles). Its computer determines when to fire a 107 mm projectile. When the incoming round is at 7 m range — the Drozd fragmentation warhead detonates, spreading 3-gram slugs to destroy the incoming round. The Drozd system was relatively complex, requiring a radar array and two launch tubes on each side of the tank turret, and a large electronics package on turret rear.

One of Drozd's shortcomings was that it was only able to protect a 60 degree arc around the forward part of the turret. Each unit cost around $30,000, was 80-percent successful against incoming RPGs in Afghanistan, but proved to provide too high of a collateral damage issue to surrounding troops that were dismounted from their armored vehicles.

The project was abandoned by the Army, but completed by the Soviet Naval Infantry to increase protection for about 250 older T-55 tanks in 1981–82 (newer T-72s were problematic on landing craft, due to size and weight, and $170 million Drozd development was much cheaper than a new tank design). Tanks were upgraded to T-55M standard and equipped with Drozd at the tank rebuilding plant in Lviv, Ukraine, and kept in war stores for secrecy. The rebuilt tanks were designated T-55AD, or T-55AD1 if they had the newer V-46 engine. Drozd APS was later replaced by the simpler Kontakt-5 explosive reactive armour.

Drozd was exported in small numbers to China and to an undisclosed Middle-Eastern client. It was subsequently discontinued. The Drozd-2 system was developed to give a 120-degree protection arc with more projectile launchers. It was intended to be installed on the T-80U main battle tank. A more sophisticated all-round active protection system is the Arena Active Protection System.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drozd

And of course the Arena APS developed in response to Chechnya.

he Arena Active Protection System (APS) is an active countermeasure system developed at Russia's Kolomna-based Engineering Design Bureau to protect armoured fighting vehicles from shaped-charge projectiles. It uses a millimeter-wavelength doppler radar to detect incoming warheads, then fires a defensive projectile, timed to detonate immediately above the target and spray it with a stream of splinters thereby defeating the threat.

The dangerous zone is relatively small, 20–30 meters around the tank, allowing for infantry to operate nearby. When the system is triggered, a warning signal is activated, to warn nearby personnel to keep distance or take cover. However, it should be noted that a HEAT projectile hitting any target creates shrapnel flying from the impact zone.

Arena was designed partly in response to vulnerabilities of the Russian tanks, discovered during fighting in Chechnya in the 1990s. It is intended to help protect a tank from light anti-tank weapons and ATGMs, including some of those with top attack warheads.

The cost of the system on a single armoured vehicle is approximately $300,000. It was first employed on the T-80UM1 Main Battle Tank.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arena_Active_Protection_System

 

[Greymatters]

And another thing for the crew to remember to disable in the "heater off, speakers off, gun safe, COAX safe, MG safe, MBGD safe (or all 4 clear, depending on your SOP and threat level - don't need another UNPROFOR fuel bladder/MBSGD incident), Anti-Missile safe (or clear), gun over back deck, hydraulics off" routine when going into a Running Replen! 

Are you refering to the one carrier that was reported as 'self-ignited due to electrical fault' or is this a different incident?