GD-RAFAEL’s Reactive Armor Equips US Military

Up-armored M3A3s in Iraq
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The USA’s M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles have played a central role in armed operations in Iraq. Many of them are now doing it with special reactive applique armor tiles that significantly improve their protection against anti-tank rockets. General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products Inc. in Burlington, VT is the main supplier, in conjunction with Israel’s RAFAEL who pioneered the design.

The add-on armor kit for the M2/M3 Bradleys, for instance, includes 105 tiles that look like small boxes and attach to the sides, the turret and the front of each vehicle. The armor is some of the most advanced in the world, and includes both passive protection of strong material that diverts the rocket, plus reactive protection. That reactive protection uses a very special, insensitive explosive that is detonated only when hit by a missile or rocket; it will not react to other heat sources, or lesser impacts from small arms or shell fragments. The resulting explosion disrupts the incoming armor-penetrating blast jet. That’s the theory, anyway. What have the results been like? Have improvements been made? What purchases have taken place, and when?

The Birth and Refinement of Reactive Armor

M2 Bradley w. reactive armor
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Rafael first began applying reactive armor technology immediately after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when the Israeli military realized its older-model tanks were vulnerable to missiles and rockets. Israel became the world’s first army to use reactive armor, but kept it secret until Syrian forces captured an Israeli tank in Lebanon during the 1980s.

Since then, Rafael has continuously improved its technology and applied it to numerous programs in Israel and abroad. The firm has been working with General Dynamics since 1994 to provide reactive armor sets for the U.S. Army Bradleys, and on September 13, 2002 the partnership received an order from the U.S. Army’s TACOM / ARDEC Picatinny Arsenal, covering procurement armor tiling as well as funding for the qualification and first-article testing of a product upgrade to further improve crew and vehicle survivability over the current design.

M113 w. armor kit
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The result was a new-generation insensitive reactive armor, which is being installed on the USA’s Bradley IFVs as a follow-on to the earlier generation reactive armor that has already been deployed to Iraq. This reactive armor is has also been demonstrated with or applied to other Armored Personnel Carriers and Infantry Fighting Vehicles, including the USA’s M113 APC (beats using MRE crates, those do work), Britain’s somewhat similar FV432 APC, BAE Hagglunds’ popular CV90 Fighting Vehicle, et. al. It is even beginning to migrate to MRAP-class mine-protected vehicles like PVI/RAFAEL’s Golan in response to side-firing EFP (Explosively Formed Penetrator) land mines.

When compared with the current in-service reactive armor, the new-generation system not only provides a higher level of protection for the same weight, but the explosive used was switched to an insensitive munitions type that does not burn when hit. The US Ministry of Transportation has classified the explosives in RAFAEL’s Reactive Armor as an Extremely Insensitive Detonating Substance (EIDS); this innovative LBR (Low Burning Rate) explosive behaves like inert material during transportation, storage and maintenance, but releases its full energy when hit by a warhead such as those in the ubiquitous RPG-7.

Overall reports suggest that the US military has been very pleased with the results: a positive release from the US Program Executive Office Ground Combat Systems (PEO-GCS), the General Dynamics – RAFAEL team’s letter of recognition for its performance and rush deliveries from the U.S. Army, and most of all the escalating pace and volume of orders in the face of roadside mines, explosive charges and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attacks in Iraq.

Reactive Armor and Future Threats

PVI/RAFAEL Golan
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The effectiveness of the GD-RAFAEL explosive reactive armor against some of the newer dual-warhead anti-tank rockets like the RPG-27 is less certain; the danger is that the precursor warhead would work as intended by detonating the reactive armor, whereupon the follow-on warhead would perform normally against a target defended only by its steel.

The 2006 Lebanon war suggested that dual-warhead designs could defeat reactive armor, but neither company is discussing it at this point. RAFAEL has introduced a follow-on ERA design called M-TAPS in August 2007, and the introduction of shaped charge and side-firing explosively-formed penetrator IED land mines into the Iraqi theater has added yet another impetus for reactive armor protection.

On the minus side, the dual-warhead threat is pushing a shift to other defensive options. The development and deployment of Active Protection Systems like RAFAEL’s TROPHY, or instance, which track and kill incoming projectiles directly, has been spurred in part by this threat.

US Contract Awards: Bradley Reactive Armor

A General Dynamics release on July 31/06 placed the order total at $245 million, if all options were exercised. As of August 2007, another $107.7 million was exercised, to bring the total of placed orders up to $237 million. An Aug 29/06 General Dynamics release appeared to raise the order value by announcing $417 million as the ceiling for Bradley ERA tiles. At present, based on DID’s calculations of announced contracts, total US contracts to equip its Bradley force with reactive armor have now reached about $661 million.

Early contracts featured both General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin or its predecessor firms, but recent contracts have consistently gone to General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products Inc. in Burlington, VT. Production is shared with RAFAEL in Haifa, and U.S. tile production takes place at GD ATP’s Stone County Operations reactive armor facility in McHenry, MS.

The numbers given below are the number of vehicle sets procured in each buy; note that for some contracts, this information was not given out. Based on the information that has been made public thus far, the average cost of this reactive armor per vehicle set would appear to be between $250,000-$300,000. Note, however, that this may have changed since March 2004 due to volume production and new technologies used. The newest contract was initiated on March 15/06 (W15QKN-06-C-0143):

The increase in procurement tempo and value over the duration of Operation Iraqi Freedom’s most intensive phases (March 2003 – 2007) is very noticeable.

Other Contract Awards & Key Events

M1A2 Abrams TUSK
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Contracts have tended to be sole source, and have been issued by the US Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command at Picatinny Arsenal, or at one time by the US Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, MI.

Work on these contracts is generally managed from GDATP’s Burlington Technology Center, VT; Lyndonville, VT; with additional activity possible in the McHenry, MS American manufacturing facility, and in East Windsor, CT; Graham, KY; St. Paul, MN; Fall River, MA; Stoughton, MA; Albany, OR; Warrendale, PA; and of course Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. RAFAEL in Haifa, Israel is both a managing and a production partner.

Aug 20/07: Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd. announces the release of M-TAPS (Multi-Threat Armor Protection System), a product upgrade offering the newest generation hybrid (reactive / passive) add-on armor designed to defeat Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG), Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFP), high speed artillery fragments from artillery, and Armor Piercing projectiles from heavy machine guns.

“The system has been intensively tested at Rafael’s facilities and by the IDF and has demonstrated its ability to defeat powerful EFPs and RPGs, as well as other threats.” RAFAEL release.

Aug 15/06: General Dynamics Land Systems in Burlington, VT received a $30.3 million firm-fixed-price contract for Abrams Reactive Armor tile sets. A subsequent General Dynamics release notes that the total contract value could reach $59 million if all contract options are exercised. Reactive armor tiles are part of the M1 Abrams tank’s TUSK (Tank Urban Survivability Kit) upgrade.

Work will be performed in McHenry, MS (80%), and Burlington, VT (20%), and is expected to be complete by August 11, 2009. There were 8 bids solicited on May 23, 2006, and 3 bids were received by the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ (W15QKN-06-C-0179).

May 28/04: General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, a business unit of General Dynamics celebrates the grand opening of its Reactive Armor manufacturing facility in Stone County, MS. GD ATP release.

Oct 9/02: General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products offers further details concerning the Pentagon DefenseLINK’s Sept 13/02 order announcement. The $19.4 million order from the U.S. Army’s TACOM/ARDEC Picatinny Arsenal includes 56 reactive armor vehicle sets, 170 partial sets, and funding for the qualification and first-article testing of a product upgrade. Work will be complete by Jan 30/04.

Rafael Ordnance Systems of Haifa, Israel will share production workload 50/50. Qualification of the new reactive armor design could extend production deliveries several more years. The GD ATP release adds that a total of 409 sets of reactive armor have been delivered since the inception of the program.

Additional Readings & Sources

* General Dynamics Armament & Technical Products – Reactive Armor

* RAFAEL – Add-On Armor Systems

* Army Technology – Bradley M2 / M3 Tracked Armoured Fighting Vehicles, USA

* General Dynamics (Aug 20/07) – General Dynamics Awarded $108 Million for Production of Reactive Armor for Bradley Fighting Vehicle*

* General Dynamics (Aug 29/06) – General Dynamics Awarded $30 Million to Produce Reactive Armor for Abrams Tanks*

* General Dynamics (July 31/06) – General Dynamics Awarded $129 Million for Production of Reactive Armor for Bradley Fighting Vehicle[*]

* RAFAEL (Sept 1/05) – RAFAEL’s Introduce Insensitive Reactive Armor Solutions in Europe

* RAFAEL (July 20/05) – General Dynamics and RAFAEL win $38M Reactive Armor Contract

* Israel21c (March 20/05) – Israeli armor saves American lives in Iraq

!Tag: ERA!