During Aero India 2025, an agreement was reached between Israel's Rafael and India's Larsen & Toubro for the joint promotion of the Trophy active protection system for the Indian Ministry of Defense. Currently, this is just a memorandum of understanding, but it is quite indicative regarding the expansion of this system in the defense market.
Additionally, the Israeli APS could potentially be installed not only on Indian Arjun tanks but also on T-90S tanks, which India previously purchased in large quantities from Russia with localization rights. This concerns approximately 1,200 units of these Russian tanks in the Indian Army, along with 2,500 T-72 tanks. In contrast, according to the 2021 plan, only 118 units of Arjun are set to be produced by 2027.
Moreover, it is worth noting that Larsen & Toubro is currently finalizing the development and preparing for serial production of its own light tank Zorawar, designed for operations in mountainous conditions, considering the capabilities of the Chinese Type 15 light tank. Therefore, the appearance of the Trophy APS on the Zorawar is quite logical, and it may even precede other models.
At the same time, the volumes of potential supplies, costs, and other conditions may only become known shortly before or after the signing of a firm agreement. However, it is highly likely that it will involve the localization of Trophy production under the Make in India program.
In this context, the prospects of the Indian market, given the variety of armored vehicles required for the Indian armed forces totaling 1.5 million personnel, hinge solely on the financial aspect. The need for such protection systems requires no further explanation. It is also worth mentioning that Rafael updated its system for countering kamikaze drones at the end of 2024.
It should be recalled that Germany has already established and is producing this APS through EuroTrophy GmbH, which was founded by KMW (now KNDS Deutschland), General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS), and Rafael. The aim is to meet the APS needs for the Leopard 2. Additionally, for the urgent supply of Trophy to American Abrams tanks in four brigades, an American unit from the Italian conglomerate Leonardo was involved.