Leonardo DRS has received an undefinitised contract action for the delivery of additional Trophy active protection systems for the US Army.

Under the contract, initially worth $79.6m, the company will also deliver the systems developed by Israel-based partner Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to the US Marine Corps.

With this contract, the total funded value of the programme increases to more than $200m.

Leonardo DRS Land Systems division vice-president and general manager Aaron Hankins said: “Leonardo DRS is proud of the confidence shown by the army in deciding to field Trophy to even more US combat brigades.

“Together with our Rafael partners, we are fully committed to meeting our customers’ demands and are working in parallel to further address the urgent protection needs of other US platforms.”



The active protection system has been designed to protect soldiers against anti-armour rocket and missile threats.

“We are also leveraging our global leadership in both active protection and medium-calibre remote weapons systems, to offer the mature, reliable, lightweight Samson turret.”

The system allows for an immediate response as it is capable of proactively detecting, locating and reporting the origin of the hostile fire.

In August, Leonardo DRS and Rafael team tested the new upgraded lighter weight Trophy VPS on a Bradley fighting vehicle.

This February, the team will take part in the army’s Stryker Expedited active protection system demonstration.

Rafael Land and Naval Division executive vice-president and head Moshe Elazar said: “Trophy VPS provides the same capabilities and performance as Trophy in a significantly smaller package.

“We are also leveraging our global leadership in both active protection (close to 1,500 Trophy systems) and medium-calibre remote weapons systems (over 1,000 systems), to offer the mature, reliable, lightweight Samson turret, which combines both capabilities.

“Given our wide customer base and existing production lines for both, Samson is a capable, affordable, low-risk solution for the US Army’s Next Generation Combat Vehicles, other programmes in Israel and other markets.”