Buffalo (mine protected vehicle)

The Buffalo is a wheeled mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) armored vehicle built by Force Protection Inc.

History
The Buffalo vehicle was designed based on the successful South African Casspir mine-protected vehicle. While the Casspir is a four wheeled vehicle, the Buffalo has six wheels. Buffalo is also fitted with a large articulated arm, used for ordnance disposal. Both vehicles incorporate a "V" shaped monohull chassis that directs the force of the blast away from the occupants.

Buffalo is also now equipped with BAE Systems' LROD cage armor for additional protection against RPG-7 anti-tank rounds. Glass armor is sufficient at 6 inches thickness. Run-flat tires are present in all tires. The Buffalo combines ballistic and blast protection with infrared technology to detect the presence of dangerous ordnance and a robotic arm to disable the explosive ordnance. Personnel operate the Buffalo’s 30-foot robotic arm and claw from within the armoured hull via a mounted camera and sensory equipment, to safely dispose of mines and IEDs.

In 2004, the United States had a limited number of Buffaloes in service, with an order for 15 more, at a cost of $10 million. On June 6, 2008 Force Protection, Inc delivered its 200th Buffalo to the U.S. Military.

Variants

 * Buffalo H
 * Buffalo A2

Operators

 * 🇺🇸 - 200
 * 🇨🇦 - 5 plus an additional 10 for delivery in 2009. 19 in service in Afghanistan.
 * 🇫🇷 - 5 vehicles
 * 🇮🇹 - 6 vehicles
 * 🇵🇰: 20 Cougar JERRV (Buffalo Explosive Ordnance Disposal version) received from US under Coalition Support Fund in 2010.
 * - 18 vehicles

Notable appearances in media
The Buffalo appeared as the vehicle aspect of the Decepticon Bonecrusher in the movie Transformers (2007), and in the sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Production designer Jeff Mann stated, "We found this image of a mine-sweeping vehicle that had a huge arm with what appeared to be a fork on the end. So we called the people who owned it, hoping there was a chance we could rent it or buy it, but when we got the data, it turned out the fork was only 14 in wide—they had totally cheated the whole thing in Photoshop.... We had to make an appliance to fit over the existing arm, that wouldn’t bounce around too much because it was about 10 ft wide."

The Buffalo and JERRVs vehicles are used by the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team in the television show "Bomb Patrol Afghanistan".