Israel Completes Testing of ‘Iron Fist’ Armored Vehicle Protection System

Israel is completed testing of its Iron Fist active protection system (APS), the Defense Ministry announced in a statement on Monday. The system is designed to protect armored vehicles from anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, tank-fired high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) ammunition, kinetic energy penetrators, and other battlefield threats in open and urban environments. Designed by the state-owned weapons manufacturer IMI Systems, with components developed by Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems and other defense contractors, Iron Fist uses searching and tracking radar and an electro-optic sensor suit to detect incoming threats and then launches interceptor missiles or other countermeasures to neutralize them. This allows combatants to locate hostile fire and enables the system to destroy incoming missiles before they can hit their target, providing an extra layer of protection for vehicles and their occupants. The completion of testing is a significant milestone for the Iron Fist program, and the Defense Ministry has indicated that it plans to begin installing the APS on a range of military vehicles. These include the Eitan, a homegrown armored fighting vehicle still in development, and D9 bulldozers, said Oren Giber, the head of the ministry’s Tank and APC Directorate in the statement.