On 9 November, the German Federal Cartel Office announced that Rafael Advanced Defense Systems (Israel), Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW, Germany) and General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS, Spain) had notified it of the foundation of the Munich-based Euro Trophy joint venture. As a result, merger control proceedings, which usually take a few weeks, have been initiated.
The purpose of the company is to sell and market the TROPHY Active Protection System (APS). Rafael is the manufacturer of the system. KMW and GDELS are land systems companies that can act as TROPHY integrators for their respective land vehicle families.
In Europe, Germany has ordered TROPHY APS for 17 LEOPARD 2 MBTs, which will be integrated by KMW. The UK is currently investigating the integration of TROPHY as part of the CHALLENGER 3 modernisation programme, which is being carried out by the Rheinmetall subsidiary RBSL. GDELS’ stake in the new company suggests that Spain is also interested in TROPHY. GDELS built the Spanish Army’s 219 LEOPARD 2Es. Portugal also expressed interest in APS for its 37 LEOPARD 2A6s (from Dutch stocks) in March 2021.
