Katherine Ziesing | Israel
In a first for international media, Major Sapir of the Israeli Defence Force has spoken about what it was like to be inside a Merkava Mark IV tank fitted with the Trophy defence system during the 2014 conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The video shows the ‘success’ of the hit, according to Hamas, but in fact the explosion seen is the Trophy countermeasure taking out the Kornet missile. In spite of the fact that successful defeats by Trophy accrued in battles around the Gaza strip since early 2011, this was the first public evidence of Trophy's defeat capabilities to what is known to be the most advanced Russian anti-tank guided missile (ATGM).
Major Sapir, a tank company commander at the time, spoke to ADM about the incident and what the Trophy system has meant for tank operations in the IDF.
Major Sapir has been involved in tank operations for well over a decade now and has watched the evolution of the Trophy system from testing through to deployment under various postings.
In essence, Trophy is made up of four phased array radars (one on each corner of the tank), a countermeasure and dispenser and is plugged into the battle management system of the tank. When a threat is detected, the system deploys without the crew having to take action by firing a countermeasure to take out the rocket or missile. The whole process happens in seconds with the countermeasure defeating the incoming projectile at the optimal time to minimise collateral damage coupled with an alarm and shooter location designation to the crew.
"You don’t have to worry [about anti-tank weapons] with Trophy."
“You don’t have to worry [about anti-tank weapons] with Trophy,” MAJ Sapir explained to ADM. “The system is so fast you don’t even know it’s gone off. And it will help you not just bring down the threat but also tell you where it was fired from.”
Indeed, MAJ Sapir, who was actually the tank commander during the video above, was operating with his head out of the hatch right next to the countermeasure launcher. All he felt was a ‘hot flash’ on his face, much like the main gun going off. It wasn’t until his crew told him what had happened that he realised that Trophy had deployed rather than the main armament.
Major Sapir explained how Trophy would find the anti-tank threat launch site based on various sensor feeds into the BMS and then the main gun can ‘slew to cue’ based on that information by a click of a button. This means that the radars are also able to patch in situational awareness to the wider BMS architecture, providing another level of sophistication to tank operations. In fact, every platform that is connected to the BMS could engage any aggressor that was detected by any Trophy system. Trophy can then provide a firing solution based on its sensor feed, which the crews can then choose to act on or not.
Major Sapir recounted a situation during Operation Protective Edge (the IDF terminology for the 2014 conflict) where a tank was parked outside of a building with two more tanks around the corner while tank commanders met inside to discuss strategy going forward.
“We were inside the Gaza Strip, doing a brief inside a Palestinian house with some infantry,” MAJ Sapir said. “Suddenly we heard a big bang. At first, we didn’t understand what had happened. A tank commander radioed in and told us that he saw a missile fly above his head and the Trophy system on the tank next to him took it out between the two tanks, about 15 metres from him.
“The rocket had come from a building about 300 metres away, which the tank commander had seen. We were then able to fire back directly. There was even a crew member on top of the tank when Trophy went off and when we returned fire.”
Trophy is not designed to act as a protective shield for accompanying infantry but the system can clearly be used that way.
“Honestly, I don’t know how Trophy works exactly,” MAJ Sapir admitted. “I’m just glad it does. Every time Hamas fired on a Trophy tank, they failed. Tanks aren’t good targets anymore.”
Note: the author travelled to Israel as a guest of Rafael. She would also like to thank the men and women of the IDF who shared their time and experiences during the trip.