The German Army has completed first live-fire tests with its Leopard 2 tanks equipped with Israeli-developed Trophy active protection systems.
The milestone was announced by the Israeli defense ministry on Tuesday, some ten months after Germany decided to buy the systems for its Leopard fleet.
Trophy APS developer Rafael Defense worked with the tank builder KMW on integrating the systems on the Leopard. According to the Israeli defense ministry, the system demonstrated a threat interception success rate of over 90 percent, as well as providing accurate fire source location.
Trophy is a hard-kill protection system and uses sensor data to determine interception points, initiate countermeasures and neutralize the missile.
It is already in service with the Israeli and US armed forces. The US Army received the final Trophy APS for its Abrams main battle tanks earlier this year.
The German Army will convert an unspecified number of the Leopard 2 A6 A3 main battle tanks, while one system will be retrofitted on a test vehicle for developmental support. The defense ministry earlier explained that the hulls of the tanks will have to be modified in order to integrate the additional power supply required for the installation of the Trophy APS.
According to KMW, which was selected to integrate the APS in February this year, the installation is expected to be completed by 2023.
