Michael Peck
The announcement was cryptic, even garbled. On the federal government's contracts-awarded site was an item: defense firm General Dynamics had been awarded a $9.9 million addition to a previous contract.
The literal words of the announcement were that General Dynamics will “support and [sic] urgent material release and have first unit equipped on trophy installed on an Armor Brigade Combat Team’s M1A2 SEPv2.”
The language may have been worthy of Yoda, but its significance was real. The U.S. military is finally equipping its armored vehicles with defenses against anti-tank weapons.
What the announcement seemed to be saying was that General Dynamics is responding to an urgent Army need to install Israel's Trophy active protection system, or APS, on M1A2 Abrams tanks. It’s not clear how many tanks will be equipped with Trophy. However, the announcement did say that the money would come from research and development funds, and that the work would be completed by March 2019.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/americas-m-1-abrams-tank-getting-anti-missile-shields-22640
