Trophy APS ordered for new German Leopards
Trophy is being installed on US Army Abrams tanks and has been ordered for German Leopards. (Photo: US Army)
Rafael Advanced Defence Systems’ Trophy active protection system (APS) has been deployed extensively onboard armoured vehicles used by the Israeli Army.
EuroTrophy will supply 123 Trophy APS for the German Army’s Leopard 2A8 MBT fleet under a contract placed by KNDS Deutschland.
The contract also includes an initial spare parts packages and services to successfully integrate it into the technical, operational, and logistic chain of the German Army.
This marks the second major award for EuroTrophy within the last 12 months, after the Norwegian Army’s selection for Trophy as its APS for the Leopard 2A8.
Following a Reuters leak of the German budget plan in June 2024, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed in July 2024 that a US$3.16 billion order had been placed for an additional 105 Leopard 2A8s. These will be delivered to the newly formed Lithuanian-based Bundeswehr brigade between 2027 and 2030.
The Trophy APS is an IsraeIi system developed by Rafael and marketed in Europe by EuroTrophy, a Frankfurt-based joint company of Rafael, KNDS and GDELS. It is in service with Israel and the US.
The use of Trophy on both countries’ Leopards was expected. In was announced in June last year that KMW and the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) had agreed to align the specifications of the 54 new Leopard 2 MBTs contracted in March with those for Germany’s planned procurement of the tank.
Details on the capabilities of Trophy have not been disclosed but at the heart of the system is an Israel Aerospace Industries’ Elta division EL/M-2133 S-band (2.3GHz to 2.5GHz/2.7GHz to 3.7GHz) and C-band (5.25GHz to 5.925GHz) radar. This is supported by antennas positioned in such a fashion as to provide 360° of surveillance around the vehicle.
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