WASHINGTON - Rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, are a favorite weapon of insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are cheap, easy to use and deadly. RPGs have killed nearly 40 Americans in Afghanistan and more than 130 in Iraq, including 21-year-old Pvt. Dennis Miller. They were in Ramadi, and his tank was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, says Millers mother, Kathy. Little Denny never knew what hit him. Sixteen months ago, commanders in Iraq began asking the Pentagon for a new system to counter RPGs and other anti-tank weapons. Last year, a special Pentagon unit thought it found a solution in Israel — a high-tech system that shoots RPGs out of the sky. But in a five-month exclusive investigation, NBC News has learned from Pentagon sources that that help for US troops is now in serious jeopardy. The system is called Trophy, and it is designed to fit on top of tanks and other armored vehicles like the Stryker now in use in Iraq. works by scanning all directions and automatically detecting when an RPG is launched. The system then fires an interceptor — traveling hundreds of miles a minute — that destroys the RPG safely away from the vehicle. The Israeli military, which recently lost a number of tanks and troops to RPGs, is rushing to deploy the system. Trophy is the brainchild of Rafael, Israels Armament Development Authority, which has conducted more than 400 tests and found that the system has well above [a] 90 percent probability of killing RPGs and even more <b>...</b>
Trophy
Anti-RPG
Israeli
Weapons
Defence
edelweiss
103
