Active protection systems for tanks

for those who do not know what active protection systems are read:
An active protection system, or APS, protects a tank or other armoured fighting vehicle from incoming fire before it hits the vehicle's armour. There are two general categories: soft kill systems, which use jamming to confuse a missile's guidance system, and hard kill systems, which attempt to detect and destroy incoming projectiles.


soft kill systems :
shtora jammers (made in russia)

Shtora is a Russian electro-optical countermeasures suite for tanks, designed to disrupt the laser target designation and rangefinders of incoming anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).

The system is mounted on the Russian T-80 and T-90 series tanks, the Ukrainian T-84, and the Serbian M-84AB1.
Shtora-1 is an electro-optical jammer that jams the enemy's semiautomatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) antitank guided missiles, laser rangefinders and target designators. Shtora-1 is actually a soft-kill, or passive-countermeasure system. It is most effective when used together with a hard-kill system such as the Arena active countermeasures system. The system was shown fitted to a Russian main battle tank during the International Defense Exposition, held in Abu Dhabi in 1995. The first known application of the system is the Russian T-90 main battle tank, which entered service in the Russian Army in 1993.
en.wikipedia.org...

hard kill systems :
Drozd (made in russia)
ARENA (made in russia)
TROPHY(made in israel)
Iron Fist (made in israel)
out of these , Iron Fist is the only that is capable of intercepting kinetic penetrators
drozd was the active protection system developed read:

The 1030M Drozd APS uses small rockets placed in fixed silos to both sides of the turret to defeat incoming ATGMs. The millimeter radar on the rear of a turret tracks the missile and fires the rocket from a silo that points in that direction. The rocket detonates, producing the stream of fragments that destroys the incoming projectile.

The system was installed on marine units' T-55 tanks (designated T-55AD, D signifying Drozd) in 1983.

This system had substantially less capability than the Arena APS in range of protected angles, number of incoming projectiles, and reliability of interception.

The Drozd-2 system that is being marketed today as an upgrade option for T-80U MBT offers several significant improvements over the original version, the most important being the drastically increased range of protected angles, as well as decreased projectile size and increased number of projectiles. This new system may be not inferior to Arena APS
armor.kiev.ua...

ARENA (made in russia)

The Arena tank active protection system belongs to the latest generation of Russian APS, together with Drozd-2 APS.

Arena is intended to protect tanks from antitank grenades and ATGMs, including some variants of top-attack ATGMs.

The system incorporates the following engineering solutions:

use of a multi-functional millimetre radar with "instant" scanning of all protected sector to detect and track antitank targets;
use of focused instant-effect protective ammunition for aimed destruction of incoming targets;
control equipment, represented by a specialized computer that provides automatic control over radar operation and system as a whole, as well as device for serviceability control of the system and its integrated parts and units.
Protective ammunition is housed in silo sections arranged around the turret. The rack-mounted radar is fixed on the turret roof. All other equipment is housed inside the turret. Connecting cables from the turret run inside the radar rack without affecting the sealing of the fighting compartment.
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Arena on a battlefield
In combat mode, the radar continuously searches for incoming projectiles. Once the threat is detected the radar switches to the target tracking mode, in which the data on the moving target is obtained and entered into the computer, which uses it to select the most appropriate silo and determine the time for its activation. At the determined moment, the computer generates command signals to the selected protective ammunition. The later is launched upwards and detonates, creating a directed stream of destructive elements which destroys any target within this field, eliminating the shaped-charge effect of the threat or reducing it to levels that are not dangerous to the tank.
In emergency the commander (operator) can manually operate and detonate protective ammunition from the control panel.
The number of unused protective ammunition is displayed on the control panel screen.
Each protective ammunition protects a certain azimuth sector, with destruction zones of adjacent ammunitions overlapping each other, thereby intercepting the targets repeatedly approaching the tank from the same direction. The number of mounted protective ammunition is expected to be usually sufficient to defeat all the threats to the tank during a single combat mission without replenishing the protective ammunition.
The system operates in any weather, round the clock, detects and engages targets under all conditions of tank combat employment, including while on the move with a turned turret.
armor.kiev.ua...

(continued...)
TROPHY APS

Currently, the system is designed for the Stryker light armored vehicle and for the Israeli Merkava main battle tank. The design includes a F\G band fire control radar of four flat-panel antennas mounted on the vehicle. When properly mounted, the radar field of view is 360°. When a weapon is fired at the vehicle, the internal computer uses the signal from the incoming weapon and calculates an approach vector. Once the incoming weapon is fully classified, the computers calculate the optimal time and angle to fire the neutralizers. The response comes from two launchers installed on the vehicle, one on each side. The launchers have a pivoting/rotating ability and thus are able to fire in any direction the computer requires. The launchers fire the neutralizing agents, which are usually small metal pellets like shotgun shot. The system is designed to have a very small kill zone so the lethality outside that zone is small. People standing next to the vehicle should not be affected by the firing of the TROPHY system.

The system has an automatic reloading mechanism that can handle multiple attacks, and can simultaneously engage several threats, while the armored vehicle is on the move.


Weapons TROPHY neutralizes
The system is designed to work against all types of anti-tank missiles and rockets, such as the ubiquitous rocket propelled grenades. The shield system also works against multiple threats and while the vehicle is in motion. Newer versions of the system include a reload feature for multiple firings
en.wikipedia.org...

IRON FIST read:

Iron Fist is an active protection system (APS) for medium and light weight armoured fighting vehicles, developed by Israel Military Industries (IMI). The concept was revealed by IMI in 2006 and is expected to enter Israel Defense Forces tests by mid 2007. The system has already been successfully tested against a wide variety of threats, including advanced kinetic tank caliber armor piercing rounds.

The system uses a fixed radar sensor on the protected platform to detect incoming threats, such as RPGs. When a threat is imminent, an explosive projectile interceptor is launched towards it. The interceptor explodes in close proximity of the threat, destroying or deflecting and destabilizing it. For this, only the blast effect of the explosive is used — the interceptor casing is made of combustible materials so no fragmentation is created in the explosion. This also serves to minimize collateral damage
en.wikipedia.org...

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raytheon is developing a system by the name of quickkill , which is similiar to ARENA or TROPHY

I just found this TROPHY Video on Military.com

Looks really interesting... and seems like it might be for sale!