[NBC News] Adam Ciralsky and Lisa Myers - Officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense believe an Israeli-made system that shoots rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) out of the sky can save American lives in Iraq. The Trophy works by scanning and automatically detecting when an RPG is launched. The system then fires an interceptor that destroys the RPG safely away from the vehicle. The Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation subjected Trophy to 30 tests and found it is "more than 98%" effective at killing RPGs. In an interview with NBC News on June 26, 2006, a U.S. Army official said Trophy simply is not ready. To check out the Army's claims, we went back to Israel. We found that the Israeli military has indeed begun to integrate and field Trophy on tanks, buying at least 100 systems. IDF Brig. Gen. Amir Nir said, "It's the most mature, and it can do the job....We cannot afford waiting for the next generation." Nir says the Trophy is able to engage targets from all directions - "360 degrees" - and has "the ability to reload automatically."
2007-01-11 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive