BUFFALO
COUGAR
Posted on 06/05/2004 9:45:34 PM PDT by endthematrix
It looks like a cross between a Brinks armored truck and a Light Armored Vehicle, and pretty soon it’ll head to Iraq for some of the Corps’ most dangerous duties. Late last year, officials with Marine Corps Systems Command signed a deal with Ladson, S.C.-based Force Protection Inc. to build 27 heavily armored vehicles for use by explosive ordnance disposal teams and combat engineers. Those teams dispose of land mines and improvised explosives — common weapons on the Iraqi battlefield.
The trucks, which range in size from seven to 14 tons, are not only built to survive a direct hit from an anti-tank mine, but stand a good chance of driving away — something a fully armored Humvee can’t do. The truck has a compartment encased in thick steel and bulletproof glass.
“This company’s technology and testing [have] proven that their vehicle can drive over a mine and not be dead right there on the road,” said Maj. Bob Gordon, project officer for the hardened engineer vehicle program with Systems Command at Quantico, Va.
So far the Corps has purchased nine “Cougar” four-passenger armored vehicles. These primarily will be used for Marine EOD teams.
The Corps also has purchased five Cougar variants that seat up to 12 — designated for Marine combat engineer teams.
Officials have signed a contract for a total of 27 Cougars — 15 for EOD teams and 12 for combat engineer teams — under an urgent wartime needs statement issued by I Marine Expeditionary Force last year, Gordon said. The Corps spent $4.7 million for the first 14 Cougars but does not yet have funding for the remaining 13, he added.
The first shipment of four vehicles is to be sent to EOD units in Iraq in September, with five more heading over each month through November.
The Cougar has significant advantages over a typical up-armored Humvee in its ability to survive explosive detonations from beneath the vehicle, said Mike Aldrich, vice president for marketing and sales with Force Protection Inc.
“My real gripe with armored Humvees is … from a blast standpoint you’re fighting uphill, you’re just never going to win that battle,” Aldrich said. “The vehicle is too light and too flat. So any significant amount of energy coming up from underneath the vehicle is going to launch the vehicle into the air and flip it over, as we regularly see on the news.”
The Cougar is based on a design that traces its lineage to the South African army and other militaries in land mine-plagued regions.
The armored crew capsule — which has an angular shape designed to deflect blast energy away from the vehicle — is mounted on a frame built by Denton, Texas-based Peterbilt Motor Company, and the truck has the same Detroit Diesel Corp.-built engine as the Army’s Stryker infantry carrier vehicle, Aldrich said.
Gordon, an engineer officer, says the Cougar is a long overdue addition to the EOD and combat engineer community, which in the past had to make do with whatever vehicles it could get.
“Obviously with Iraq and the improvised explosive devices that are out there, that has put a high interest and high visibility for the engineers to have a vehicle that can withstand those, so they can go out there and defuse the IEDs,” Gordon said.
COUGAR
Neat. Thanks
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