From the 'what the f*ck are they thinking?' files:
Sixteen months ago, commanders in Iraq began asking the Pentagon for a new system to counter RPGs and other anti-tank weapons. Last year, a special Pentagon unit thought it found a solution in Israel — a high-tech system that shoots RPGs out of the sky.
The system is called “Trophy,” and it is designed to fit on top of tanks and other armored vehicles like the Stryker now in use in Iraq.
OFT officials subjected Trophy to 30 tests and found that it is “more than 98 percent” effective at killing RPGs....
So why is the Army refusing to deploy Trophy?
Army brass considers the Israeli system a threat to an Army program to develop an RPG defense system from scratch.
Col. Donald Kotchman, who heads the Army’s program to develop an RPG defense, acknowledges that Raytheon’s system won’t be ready for fielding until 2011 at the earliest.
“This debate has nothing, zero, to do with capability or timeliness. It’s about money and politics. You’ve got a gigantic program [FCS] and contractors with intertwined interests. Trophy was one of the most successful systems we’ve tested, and yet the Army has ensured that it won’t be part of FCS and is now trying to prevent it from being included on the Strykers” that OFT planned to send to Iraq.
Terrorists and insurgents will now sleep more soundly knowing it's that much easier to get at our people. This type of bullshit graft is despicable and heads should literally roll for it.
