Buffalo

One of the latest additions to the U.S. Army's emerging counterinsurgency arsenal traces its origins to the struggles against earlier insurgencies on the African continent.

Manufactured by Force Protection, Inc., the Buffalo is a new, heavyweight armored wheeled vehicle, designed principally for land mine and route clearance operations, that is now being applied in a wide variety of Army force protection activities.

"Our company was founded in the mid-1990s by an ex-Rhodesian Special Forces officer named Garth Barrett, who had had a lot of experience working with the South African forces during the 1970s and 1980s," explained Scott R. Ervin, interim Chief Executive Officer for Force Protection, Inc. "During that time, the South African Republic was facing a lot of insurgent action, particularly mine and IED-type booby traps and other threats used by insurgency forces."

In response to these insurgency threats, the South African government tasked CSIR, that country's central scientific research and development resource, to conduct basic research and practical development on vehicles that could safely transport troops through a threat array of booby traps, land mines, IEDs, sniper fire and ambush attacks.