Russia’s newest Kornet-EM self-propelled anti-tank guided missile system completely ‘trashes’ the latest version of the U.S. Army’s Abrams tank, eqquiped with Israeli-built Trophy active protection systems, according to several pro-Kremlin media reports.
Russian state news agency TASS, the country’s leading news source, reported that latest Trophy active protection system supplied for the combat vehicles of the Israeli and U.S. armies is poorly suited for fighting modern Russian anti-tank weapons.
The Trophy is a hard-kill active-protection system, known as APS, designed for detecting, locating, and (if necessary) neutralizing anti-armor threats. Hard-kill refers to physical countermeasures such as blast or projectiles that destroy or divert incoming fire.
This system protects heavy and medium armored vehicles from threats ranging from rockets to ATGMS and High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds. Extremely precise target acquisition and tracking, coupled with Multiple Explosively Formed Projectile (MEFP)countermeasure technology, ensures a high probability of threat neutralization (in most cases without thread initiation) while minimizing the potential for collateral effects. TROPHY HV is fully tested, qualified, and in serial production for the Israel Defense Forces armor force (since August 2009) and now installed on the latest version of the Abrams tank.
TASS, quoting an unnamed source in the Israeli defense industry, said that “the Trophy system proved its high effectiveness in repelling single launches of anti-tank missiles and rocket grenades, including launches from different directions. However, the active protection system still can’t sustain fighting two or three anti-tank munitions launched at a minimum interval. This technology is used in Russia’s latest systems, for example, the upgraded Kornet system and single-use grenade launchers”.
Also noted that specifically, these are the Russian-made Kornet-EM self-propelled anti-tank system. The Kornet-EM is capable of firing two missiles in one beam with a minimum interval.
The Trophy active protection system still needs to work on effectively fighting anti-tank weapons based on this principle, the source noted.
It should be stated, Russian state-controlled media launched a mini-crusade against Trophy after news that the U.S. Army has unveiled an advanced version of M1 Abrams tank with a new protection package on its turret during exercise in Romania.
The newest version of the M1 Abrams tank is considered the most technologically advanced digital tank in the world with superior firepower and equipped with Trophy active protection system, which will help guard against anti-tank guided missiles and infantry anti-tank rockets.
