Herd of Buffaloes
What started as a humble little Mom and Pop operation hand-building Cougar and Buffalo armored vehicles for the Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams has expanded into a massive production push involving some of the biggest companies in the armor industry, all intended to meet skyrocketing demand for protected trucks. I go into detail over at Military.com:
Just two years ago, Force Protection had a staff of 12 hand-building one Buffalo per month, according to spokesman Wayne Phillips. Now the company employs 400 and churns out more than a vehicle per day. Force Protection is slated to build 300 Buffalos through 2010 and several hundred more Cougars. This year, Force Protection partnered with BAE Systems to build as many as 1,000 Cougar derivatives for the Iraqi Army under the U.S.-managed Iraqi Light Armored Vehicle program. In recent weeks, the company has signed a similar agreement with General Dynamics Land Systems to jointly manufacture the standard Cougar in order to meet rising demand, including 85 for the British Army.
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--David Axe
