Rafael, KMW and GDELS to Establish Joint Venture to Produce Trophy APS

Israeli firm Rafael said today it is establishing a joint venture with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) to produce Trophy active protection systems (APS).

EuroTrophy, the JV, will be based in Germany. “It will provide potential marketing opportunities, sales and production of the TROPHY APS to European customers and markets. It will also supply potential vehicle integration services & related through-life support of the APS,” Rafael posted on its official Twitter account on Thursday.

Subject to regulatory approvals, the new company is expected to be established by the end of this year.

Also read: German Leopard Tanks Tested with Trophy APS for First Time

Trophy APS provides protection against rocket and missile threats and simultaneously locates the origin of the hostile fire for immediate response. Trophy is the only fully-integrated APS in the world and has been installed on Israel Defense Forces’ Merkava tanks since 2010, and has also been installed on the Namer APCs. Trophy has also been supplied to four U.S. Army Abrams MBT brigades. It has accrued over 1,000,000 operating hours, including over 5,400 successful field tests, and is now under contract for serial production of over 1,800 systems.