The governments of most nations around the globe spend untold sums of money developing weapons that strike at enemies with heavy force, or on a smaller scale through the use of unmanned drones. Many of these nations also spend great sums of money on defensive technologies to protect their troops from enemy weapons.

In August of 2009, Israel Defense Forces announced a new system for defense of tanks that is called the Trophy Active protection system. The system was operational at the time and undergoing extensive testing. The idea behind the Trophy system is to protect tanks from threats including missiles and rocket propelled grenades fired by enemy combatants.

The Trophy system was developed by Rafael Armaments Development Authority and funded by the Defense Ministry of Israel. The system uses an F/G band fire control radar that makes use of four flat panel-antennas that are mounted on the tank or APC giving the system a 360-degree field of view. The radar system detects incoming missiles or RPG's and calculates the point at which the weapon will impact the vehicle and what type of weapon is incoming. 

Once the weapon is classified and the point of impact is calculated the system fires a small "neutralizing agent" which is reportedly a mist of small pellets like a shotgun would fire to destroy the incoming rocket or grenade. The entire system is designed with two things in mind -- protecting the tank or vehicle and its occupants and protecting any ground forces that might be near the vehicle when the countermeasures are fired. The kill zone for the Trophy system was designed to be very small to prevent any injury to friendly forces near the vehicle.

The Associated Press reports that Trophy system has now been officially introduced by Israel. If the system can prove itself functional on the battlefield, it could change the face of ground combat and tip the balance of power in Israel's favor if the nation goes to war against Hezbollah or other militant groups in the region.

John Pike from GlobalSecurity.org told the AP, "I think people will be watching the Israelis roll this thing out and see if they can get the hang of it. The future of the United States army is riding on the proposition that something like this can work."

The U.S. military is working on its own similar system that isn’t ready for the battlefield just yet.

According to the developers of the Trophy system, it is capable of stopping any anti-tank weapon in the Hezbollah arsenal. These weapons were directly responsible for the deaths of at least 19 Israeli tank crewmen during the war between Israel and Hezbollah that raged for a month in 2006.

A Trophy program manager only identified as Gil said, "We can cope with any threat in our neighborhood, and more."

The system is said to cost about $200,000 per installation and the amount is described as a small fraction of the cost of a tank. Rafael, the company behind Trophy, expects that the system will generate lots of international interest and the firm expects customers to order the Trophy system in the coming years.