So it's kind of a stand-off reactive armor? I only skimmed the article and didn't look for any followup. Be interesting to see it work.
The note about it using "such a small explosion that the chances of unintentionally hurting friendly soldiers through collateral damage is only 1 percent" is interesting as well. How do you make that kind of estimate? And wouldn't any exploding incoming projectile (whether intercepted and destroyed, or not) be a bigger concern anyway? Unless the intercept is happening beyond the injurious debris field.
It fires a small missile to intercept the incoming ATGM, so...it's a lot more stand-off than stand-off reactive armor which will detonate the blocks prior to impact to defeat two-stage ATGM warheads.
And as far as the casualty estimates: I figure this has more to do with average range of intercept relative to detection of the incoming threat than the actual intercepting warhead. The farther away you can detect and intercept, the less likely the event will happen danger close to friendlies. Since all it has to do is knock the incoming missile off course (assuming it's not loaded with some NBC warhead) anti-missile missiles don't have big warheads. Instead they are designed for speed and to allow for carrying the maximum number of them.
So if one hits an ATGM it won't necessarily make a big bang. And the warhead on the ATGM won't detonate - it's a shaped charge designed with a stand-off impact detonator that wouldn't go off unless the infinitesimally off chance happens that the interceptor hits the tip od the post just right. A lot of debris is going to be scattered around, but it's more like what you see when a Patriot hits an incoming missile - only it will be a much smaller scale.
On the other hand, who'd want to be a soldier supporting a tank that might randomly have a block of directed pellets, shrapnel, and explosives detonate while in battle? Let alone be near the tank brewed up by a full-on ATGM hit. That sort of thing is great for open terrain where the troopers can spread out, but given the usual urban battleground the Israeli's tend to fight in I think this has better utility and provides better protection for everyone involved in those close spaces.
It will be very interesting to see if it really works, and what everyone else comes up with to advance this technology ad ATGM tech. Here I had though ATGM's were on the way out with things like Shtora and Drozd, plus the US's own systems - but I guess they are still enough of a threat that a really sci-fi system like Trophy is needed.
